Republicans try to ax Biden border official — in rare move used only once before
House Republicans are pushing to impeach President Joe Biden’s top border official in what experts call an “exceedingly rare” move. Over the past two centuries, only one Cabinet official has ever been impeached by the House.
The House Homeland Security Committee announced on Jan. 3 it will hold its first hearing for impeachment proceedings against Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, accusing him of failing to secure the southern border.
Mayorkas, the committee said in a statement, has declined to “enforce the laws of the United States and instead implement(ed) policies that have caused and perpetuated this immigration crisis.”
In response, DHS spokesperson Mia Ehrenberg told McClatchy News the committee’s impeachment effort is a “baseless political exercise” and a “harmful distraction from our critical national security priorities.”
If the committee is successful, Mayorkas would be the first Cabinet official in nearly 150 years to be impeached, following William Belknap, a 19th century secretary of war.
“Throughout most of our history, impeachment has been exceedingly rare at every level,” Leonard Steinhorn, a history professor at American University, told McClatchy News.
Who was William Belknap?
A former Civil War general and Iowa state legislator, Belknap served as secretary of war under the administration of President Ulysses Grant, holding the post for almost eight years.
“In the rollicking era that Mark Twain dubbed the Gilded Age, Belknap was famous for his extravagant Washington parties and his elegantly attired first and second wives,” according to Senate records. “Many questioned how he managed such a grand lifestyle on his $8,000 government salary.”
In 1876, a House committee found evidence that he was involved in a glaring financial scandal.
It was revealed that he had been receiving quarterly payments of thousands of dollars from an associate of a man he’d appointed to operate a military trading post in Native American territory.
“Basically he was corrupt, receiving kickbacks,” Steinhorn said.
On March 2, 1876, the House voted unanimously to impeach Belknap, who had tearfully handed his letter of resignation to Grant earlier that day, per the Senate records.
The Senate, however, after hearing from dozens of witnesses, failed to reach the two-thirds majority required to convict, rendering an acquittal.
While other administration officials have been accused of misconduct over the years, they’ve all left office in other ways, Michael Kazin, a history professor at Georgetown University, told McClatchy News.
“Historically, cabinet members who become liabilities for their party or get involved in scandals either resign or get fired,” Kazin said.
Mayorkas impeachment effort
Now, nearly 150 years after Belknap’s impeachment, House Republicans are seeking to remove Mayorkas not over his personal conduct but over policy disagreements.
“Impeachment is authorized under the constitution for treason, bribery, and ‘other high crimes and misdemeanors,’” Steinhorn said. “The question with Mayorkas is whether House Republicans will attempt to turn a political difference into an impeachable offense.”
Mayorkas, the committee said, failed to do his duty to stem the tide of illegal immigration, resulting in an “unprecedented crisis at the Southwest border.”
More than 2.4 million instances of people trying to enter the country illegally occurred at the southern border in fiscal year 2023, marking a 40% increase since 2021, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data.
“I believe Secretary Mayorkas is an abject failure, but it’s not because of incompetence,” Speaker of the House Mike Johnson told CBS News during a visit to the southern border. “I think these are intentional policy decisions that he has made.”
A Biden administration spokesperson, in criticizing the effort to oust Mayorkas, said Republicans have shot down a request to provide more funding for border security.
The impeachment effort is “a political stunt,” Sneha Choudhary, a White House spokesperson, told McClatchy News.
It’s an attempt, Choudhary said, “to distract from the fact that House Republicans themselves have refused to fund new border agents and border security measures that are badly needed and that the President and Secretary Mayorkas have already asked them for.”
Several Republican House members have also pushed back against the attempt to impeach Mayorkas.
“Secretary Mayorkas did not commit an impeachable offense,” Rep. Ken Buck of Colorado wrote in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter. “Despite my strong disagreement with his handling of our southern border, which puts this country at grave risk, he is not guilty of high crimes or misdemeanors.”
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