The House Homeland Security Committee on Wednesday announced the start of an investigation into Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas for “dereliction of duty,” in what lawmakers said was the start of a push to impeach the head of the Homeland Security Department.
Chairman Mark Green, Tennessee Republican, released a lengthy report detailing Mr. Mayorkas’ record after two years in office, which he said includes rolling back effective Trump-era policies and implementing new changes that invited the record chaos that has erupted at the southern border.
Mr. Green said it’s too early to talk about impeachment, but said the investigation he’s leading will end with a report and recommendation to the Judiciary Committee, which oversees impeachment proceedings.
He did lay out the case against Mr. Mayorkas, accusing him of “violation of law” and “lying to Congress.”
“No officer gets to lie to his superior. No officer gets to lie to his people. You can’t do that. That’s a dereliction of duty. You can’t fail to do your jobs. His job is to secure the border,” Mr. Green said.
Mr. Mayorkas has brushed aside the notion of impeachment, saying he’s focused on his job.
Democrats have complained that the GOP’s criticism amounts to a difference in policy and that Mr. Mayorkas’ performance isn’t impeachable.
Mr. Green rejected that view, saying Mr. Mayorkas must be judged on whether he is securing the border or not.
“This guy’s failing. He’s put Americans at risk,” he said. “The guy’s got to go.”
Rep. Clay Higgins, Louisiana Republican, said Republicans “take no pleasure” in investigating Mr. Mayorkas, but said they feel an obligation to make a case for the public.
“We’re going to judiciously, calmly and patiently lay out the case and details regarding Secretary Mayorkas’s dereliction of duty,” he said.
Mr. Green said he expects the investigation to take 11 or 12 weeks, though he said that timeline may slip as the committee tries to probe tricky questions about how much money local communities are spending to handle the surge of illegal immigrants.
The impeachment push comes at a somewhat strange time, with the border suddenly surprisingly calmer than it had been.
Border Patrol agents are catching roughly 3,000 illegal immigrants a day right now, which is down from the 5,000 or so they averaged for much of the Biden era. It’s also far below the 10,000 a day that they were encountering in early May, just before the Title 42 pandemic border policy expired.
Mr. Mayorkas and his subordinates say the lower numbers are evidence that his plan is finally working.
Critics say it’s evidence that he has shifted the flow of illegal immigrants away from Border Patrol agents and toward the country’s official ports of entry — the airports and official land border crossings — where they now show up for scheduled appointments to be caught and released.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.