Summary
Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Nicholas Mayorkas has been deaf to the voice of Americans, blind to the chaos and consequences of his policies and actions in violating the law, and untruthful in his statements to Congress and the American people. Secretary Mayorkas has intentionally undermined the sovereign interests of the United States by evading or violating the law and embracing policies he was warned would result in disaster. As Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, he bears responsibility for this catastrophic failure. It is time for him to resign or be removed from office—for the protection and good of the men and women of the Department of Homeland Security and the American people and for the preservation of national sovereignty.
Key Takeaways
- Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has intentionally instigated an unprecedented border, national security, and humanitarian catastrophe.
- Mayorkas has violated his oath of office, abused the powers of his office, and betrayed the trust of the American people, endangering the constitutional republic.
- His misconduct is so reckless, so irresponsible, and so serious that he should be impeached, removed from office, and disqualified from holding any further office.
Introductory Statement
By his policy decisions and misconduct as Secretary of Homeland Security, Alejandro Nicholas Mayorkas has violated his oath of office, abused the powers of his office, and betrayed the trust of the American people. As a direct result of his actions, the U.S. has become gripped by an unprecedented border, national security, and illegal immigration catastrophe.
Under Secretary Mayorkas’s supervision, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has failed to protect the sovereignty and security of the United States. Against the warnings of career border security experts, he has orchestrated policies for the mass release of huge numbers of illegal aliens into the U.S. in violation of law. For his first two years in office, he threw open the southern border, creating a humanitarian crisis of historic proportions, and he deliberately encouraged and incentivized more than 6 million aliens from 160 different countries to put their lives in the hands of ruthless cartel members and smugglers as they embarked on the dangerous trek to enter the U.S. illegally.
Secretary Mayorkas’s policies and actions have resulted in the expansion of the Mexican drug cartels’ operational control of the U.S. border, along with their capacity to increase their vast and complex networks into the U.S. These cartels have put at risk the lives and safety of the dedicated officers who serve under Secretary Mayorkas’s charge. He has also orchestrated a system of processing and transporting illegal aliens into and throughout the U.S., rather than detaining and removing them as required by law.
Recently, the uncontrolled flood of illegal aliens crossing the southern border between official ports of entry has slowed, as Secretary Mayorkas has shifted to an equally unlawful policy of pre-registering these same aliens outside the U.S. for mass entry and release through ports of entry. This new process has allowed Secretary Mayorkas to claim an improvement in the crisis at the border and a lessening of the strain on border officers—but it has institutionalized his violations of law by establishing a new pathway attracting an ever-increasing flood of aliens to gain quick entry into the U.S. and be released en masse and dispersed to all parts of the country without regard for the requirements of the U.S. Constitution, immigration laws, or the deleterious effects on local communities.
Secretary Mayorkas’s reckless policies of encouraging and facilitating the entry and release of millions of illegal aliens into the U.S. have pulled limited law enforcement personnel off the front lines, away from their national security mission, and have allowed cartels to flood America’s communities with fentanyl, violent criminal aliens, gang members, and potential national security threats. Secretary Mayorkas has also acted inexcusably to denigrate and abuse U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers, lied to Congress and deceived the public about the nature and consequences of his policies, and acted to suppress the constitutional and statutory rights of Americans.
For these violations, abuses, depredations, and betrayals, Secretary Mayorkas deserves to be impeached, removed from office, and disqualified from holding any further office of honor, trust, or profit under the United States.
While there is overlap in the grounds for his impeachment, Secretary Mayorkas’s impeachable offenses are appropriately considered in three categories for purposes of analysis:
1. In Violation of His Oath, Secretary Mayorkas Has Deliberately Defied and Contravened the Laws He Is Charged with Faithfully Executing. Under his policies, direction, and supervision, the DHS has released tens of thousands of illegal aliens every month into the United States, using, in part, parole in violation of the clear requirements of the immigration statutes he is sworn to enforce.
He has also ignored and failed to uphold the mandatory detention and deportation provisions of the immigration laws. These acts have resulted in the entry of inadmissible aliens and the continued presence of deportable aliens, such as criminals, drug traffickers, human traffickers, and suspected terrorists. And he has defied or acted in violation of other laws and court orders, as detailed herein. The new system he has introduced of pre-registering aliens for mass entry and release into the U.S. continues—and, indeed, institutionalizes—the very same violations of law.
2. Secretary Mayorkas Has Repeatedly Abused the Authority of His Office, Including By, Among Other Conduct, Enticing a Flood of Aliens to Cross the U.S. Southern Border with His Policies and Statements by:
- Treating all comers as “refugees” or “asylum seekers,” even though he knows that most are not coming to flee persecution and are ineligible for asylum under the law;
- Directing and overseeing policies that have created a border, national security, and humanitarian disaster that he knows or should know put the American public in danger not only from over 1.2 million illegal aliens who evaded the Border Patrol, but also from unknown quantities of fentanyl and other deadly drugs that could not be seized by border officers because those officers were directed instead to process and release illegal aliens into the U.S.;
- Denigrating, abusing, and putting in harm’s way the DHS officers who serve under him; and
- Taking actions to suppress the exercise of First Amendment rights by political opponents and the exercise of statutory rights under the immigration laws by American citizens and lawful permanent residents.
3. Secretary Mayorkas Has Betrayed the Trust of the People by Lying to Congress and Withholding Information and Misleading the Public in an Effort to Hide and Suppress the Nature and Consequences of His Abominable Policies.
The violations, abuses, and betrayals perpetrated by Secretary Mayorkas fit squarely within the universe of “high Crimes and Misdemeanors” warranting impeachment of Cabinet officers and other principal civil officers of the United States, consistent with U.S. history and constitutional traditions.
By Hans von Spakovsky, Lora Ries and Steven Bradbury
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