House committee passes impeachment articles against Homeland Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas

The U.S. House Homeland Security Committee passed articles of impeachment Wednesday against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on a party-line vote. The full House will vote next.

Homeland Committee Republicans accused the Democratic members of stalling after the proceedings went on for roughly 15 hours. Democrats argued GOP members cut short the debate over “baseless” claims against Mayorkas.

The Department of Homeland Security secretary is accused of “high crimes and misdemeanors, including for his handling of issues involving fentanyl and border security.”

Rep. Celeste Maloy says Mayorkas ‘has all the authority’ to address border crisis

House Committee on Homeland Security Chairman Mark Green, R-Tenn., said, Mayorkas “refused to comply with the laws” and “has breached public trust.” He added he was proud to advance the historic articles.

The impeachment articles say that Mayorkas has violated 12 immigration and border security laws, adding that “because of his unlawful conduct, millions of aliens have illegally entered the United States on an annual basis with many unlawfully remaining in the United States.”

More than 300,000 illegal migrant crossings were recorded in December alone — marking an all-time monthly high in the three years since this crisis has evolved, according to CBS News, which obtained the government data.

Committee ranking member Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., said in a statement that Republicans “abruptly shut down debate of their sham impeachment articles in the dark of night,” before calling the impeachment articles “obviously deficient — and baseless.”

He added: “They want a political issue. And most of all, they want to please their disgraced former president.” 

On Friday, Rep. Celeste Maloy, R-Utah, told the Deseret News she doesn’t know whether she will vote in favor of the impeachment — it will depend on the evidence.

“But I do think it’s pretty clear that we have a problem at the border that’s not being addressed,” she said, adding, “The secretary has all the authority he would need to address the problem with the border and isn’t doing it. So, that’s problematic.”

Last week, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said the House would vote on the impeachment articles “as soon as possible.”

Will Alejandro Mayorkas be impeached?

Should the House advance the resolutions, Mayorkas will become the first cabinet member to be impeached in nearly 150 years. Working under President Ulysses Grant, William Belknap was the secretary of war when he resigned after facing criminal corruption charges, according to the Library of Congress. The Senate acquitted him in August 1876, with his status as a former official becoming a sticking point in the trial.

Attorney Alan Dershowitz, in an opinion article published in The Hill, wrote that he represented former President Donald Trump in his 2020 impeachment case, where he successfully demonstrated that the “vague allegations of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress” did not fall under “treason, bribery, and other high crimes or misdemeanors,” which are the justifications for an impeachment in the Constitution.

He argued the impeachment articles against Mayorkas are “equally vague.” Dershowitz said, “Congress has the power to issue a statement condemning Mayorkas, just as it had the power to issue a statement condemning Trump.”

“But the extraordinary power of impeachment should be reserved for constitutionally impeachable offences and not invoked simply because one party has the votes to do so.”

Although Mayorkas did not testify in Congress, he wrote a six-page letter to the House Homeland Committee on Tuesday, before the articles of impeachment were considered.

“I assure you that your false accusations do not rattle me and do not divert me from the law enforcement and broader public service mission to which I have devoted most of my career and to which I remain devoted,” he stated, as Axios reported.

Mayorkas also backed the bipartisan border deal, which is tied to foreign aid for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan. Lawmakers have been negotiating over the funding package for months.

Johnson told ABC News that while he hasn’t seen the funding package that Senate negotiators have been working on for months, it “is not enough to secure the border.” Trump, too, said Monday, “The border bill is not necessary.”