The top Biden administration official over border security appeared before a hostile House committee on Wednesday and largely listened as the body of Republicans laid the groundwork for the case of his impeachment.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas testified before the House Homeland Security Committee Wednesday, where Chairman Mark Green (R-TN) accused the Cabinet official of high crimes and misdemeanors.
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Green had told a group of political donors in a private setting last week that today's hearing would be where he began making the case for Mayorkas's impeachment, according to a New York Times report. His opening line of questioning, as well as by Republicans who followed him, went straight to that point.
Green slammed Mayorkas for agreeing in a previous House hearing on April 28, 2022, that he had “operational control” of the border, a term first defined in the 2006 Secure Fence Act as the standard for a secure border.
“Mr. Roy reads the very definition you just admitted last month in the Senate that has not been achieved. He said, ‘According to this definition, do you have operational control?’ According to the definition that you just said, ‘No one has operational - has ever had operational control.’ He asks you under oath, in the United States Congress, if you had operational control according to that definition and you said, ‘I do,'” Green said in his opening question to Mayorkas.
“That is a false statement because you admitted in the Senate that no one had ever achieved that. You make it very clear, Mr. Secretary, that you’ve known all along according to the definition that is written in the law passed by the Congress that you do not have operational control,” Green continued. “And yet in testimony to this House, under oath, the definition was read to you. You’ve asked, 'According to that' — you’re asked, ‘According to that definition, whether control exists. And you say, ‘Yes.’ That sounds like a lie under oath.”
Green did not give Mayorkas a chance to respond to his point.
Rep. Clay Higgins (R-LA) followed Green's remarks and told Mayorkas that he believed the secretary had violated 11 laws over the past two years and three months in his post.
Republicans had stamped a bullseye on Mayorkas when they took the House in January, but the public calls to remove him from office had died off in recent weeks as the party pivots to legislating. But Wednesday's actions indicate Republicans may chase both items simultaneously.
Since January, House committees have held more than a handful of hearings in Washington and at the southern border, where a record-high five million noncitizens have been encountered attempting to enter the U.S. illegally. Lawmakers said they would investigate and build a case against Mayorkas.
But other rank-and-file members are not willing to wait.
House Oversight Committee member Pat Fallon (R-TX) put forth three articles of impeachment, which 42 others have since co-sponsored.
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Former House Freedom Caucus leader Andy Biggs (R-AZ) also debuted articles of impeachment.
Fallon's spokesman maintained in a statement to the Washington Examiner this week that anything short of impeaching Mayorkas would fall short of what the party "promised" to do before taking office.