FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Chairman Green Urges House to Impeach Secretary Mayorkas
WASHINGTON—Today, Chairman Mark Green delivered remarks on the House floor urging the passage of two articles of impeachment against Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. For nearly a year, the House Committee on Homeland Security has conducted a methodical, comprehensive investigation into the causes, costs, and consequences of the border crisis, producing seven separate reports, totaling around 400 pages. Following a House vote, including by 201 Democrats, to refer articles of impeachment to the House Committee on Homeland Security, the Committee initiated impeachment proceedings.
Madam Speaker, I rise today to present two articles of impeachment against Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
- Article I charges him with Willful and Systemic Refusal to Comply with the Law; and
- Article II charges him with Breach of Public Trust.
Since Secretary Mayorkas took office, we’ve all watched the unprecedented crisis at our borders unfold. We’ve seen the chaos.
Under Secretary Mayorkas’ watch, Customs and Border Protection has reported more than 8.5 million encounters at our borders, including more than 7 million apprehensions at the Southwest border. Even more terrifying is the approximate 1.8 million known gotaways, that Border Patrol agents detect, but are unable to apprehend. Millions of those inadmissible aliens who are encountered are eventually released into our communities.
This has never happened before in the history of the country. And it doesn’t happen by accident.
For nearly a year, the House Committee on Homeland Security conducted a thorough, fair, and comprehensive investigation into the causes, costs, and consequences of the border crisis. Our members saw firsthand numerous parts of the Southwest border, spent time with law enforcement officers on the frontlines, and spoke with real Americans about how the crisis is affecting them. We also conducted a field hearing and roundtable on the border that our Democrat colleagues refused to attend, burying their heads in the sand as if there wasn’t a crisis. We published seven total reports, totaling nearly 400 pages—to which Democrats never had a single substantive response. Instead, their only response was to simply shout “MAGA” louder and louder, as if that’s a meaningful response to the millions of Americans suffering from this crisis.
We held many hearings at the subcommittee and full committee level, and we heard from a variety of witnesses, including former senior DHS enforcement officials, state attorneys general, and victims who have been impacted by Secretary Mayorkas’ border crisis. Democrats consistently claimed these hearings were a waste of time. Tell that to the families of the 150,000 Americans who died from fentanyl poisoning in 2021 and 2022 alone.
Throughout this investigation and subsequent impeachment proceedings, we found that Secretary Mayorkas’ willful and systemic refusal to comply with the law and his breach of public trust are responsible for this historic crisis.
However, for almost a year, Democrats have turned a blind eye to the victims of the border crisis, while berating us for spending what they believed was too much time investigating Secretary Mayorkas’ lawless handling of our sovereign borders.
Keep that in mind when you hear them claim now this impeachment is somehow “rushed.” The truth is that this process has been painstakingly thorough. Unlike House Democrats, we take the use of impeachment extremely seriously.
While I do not wish to be standing here presenting these articles today, we have exhausted all other options. Our oath to the Constitution now requires us to exercise this solemn duty.
Secretary Mayorkas has explicitly refused to comply with the law. His refusal to obey the law has lead to the death of his fellow citizens, and he no longer deserves to keep his job.
What’s unique here in the history of impeachments is that the Supreme Court, just this summer, denied the affected States judicial review on many of these issues, but with the understanding that the result of doing so could mean the impeachment of a secretary.
In oral argument, Justice Kavanaugh, explained how he understood the position of the Biden Administration if judicial review was denied, saying:
“I think your position is, instead of judicial review, Congress has to resort to shutting down the government or impeachment or dramatic steps if it—if some administration comes in and says we're not going to enforce laws or at least not going to enforce the laws to the degree that Congress, by law, has said the laws should be enforced.”
In response, the Biden administration’s Solicitor General agreed saying, “Well, I think that if those dramatic steps would be warranted, it would be in the face of a dramatic abdication of statutory responsibility by the executive.”
Today’s articles of impeachment outline exactly that—a dramatic abdication of statutory responsibility by Secretary Mayorkas has occurred.
Of the articles’ 20 pages, six are solely dedicated to the laws Secretary Mayorkas has violated, while four more document his lies to Congress and the American people, and the violation of his statutory duty to control and guard our borders. We identify numerous, unambiguous provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) he has refused to enforce—laws requiring him to detain inadmissible aliens, and limit his ability to grant parole. We also highlight how programs he has created, such as various mass parole programs, are void of congressional authority.
Secretary Mayorkas is the very type of public official the Framers feared—someone who would cast aside the laws passed by a co-equal branch of government, and replace those with his own preferences—hurting his fellow Americans in the process.
He has directed the release of millions of inadmissible aliens into the country in violation of the INA, which requires them to be detained. He has abused the statute limiting parole to be issued only on a case-by-case and temporary basis, for very specific and limited reasons—instead overseeing more than 1.5 million paroles. He has created new categorical parole programs in defiance of the statute to further his mass-release agenda. And he has directed Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) personnel not to detain all manner of illegal aliens, including criminal aliens. In his September 2021 enforcement guidance, the secretary even directed that unlawful presence in the country was no longer sufficient grounds for removal, and that criminal convictions alone were not enough to warrant ICE attention.
This is not about policy differences. We certainly object to Secretary Mayorkas’ policies, but this goes far deeper. According to the Democrat-led committees that investigated Iran-Contra, “Government officials must observe the law, even when they disagree with it”, or when they think that, “Congress is to blame for passing laws that run counter to Administration policy.”
Again, we are here because our oath and duty compel us to be here. The actions and decisions of Secretary Mayorkas have left us with no other option than to proceed with articles of impeachment.
That is why we must remove him from office. The time for accountability is now. Thank you, and I reserve the balance of my time.
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This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://markgreen.house.gov/2024/2/chairman-green-urges-house-to-impeach-secretary-mayorkas