Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas’s feud with congressional Republicans reached the absurd Wednesday as he battled lawmakers over whether or not he was “smiling” while evading their questions.
With the shadow of a looming impeachment proceeding hanging over him, Mr. Mayorkas appeared before the House Judiciary Committee to try to rehabilitate his job performance and explain past remarks that Republicans said constituted perjury to Congress.
But as he batted aside GOP questions with answers that stalled, dodged or demurred, frustrated Republicans lashed out.
Some fumed that he couldn’t answer questions about what happened to 140 terrorism suspects agents have detected at the southern border this fiscal year, nor how many of the 2.1 million illegal immigrants caught and released under President Biden have since been deported.
One lawmaker called Mr. Mayorkas the “most dishonest” witness he’d seen.
When Rep. Victoria Spartz, Indiana Republican, chastised him for “looking at us with a very smiley face” during the stonewalling, he’d had enough.
“Let me allow the record to reflect — I’m not smiling, nor have I smiled,” the secretary insisted.
The House is laying the groundwork for impeachment, with the Homeland Security Committee releasing a report earlier this month accusing Mr. Mayorkas of “dereliction of duty.”
That report cited multiple “lies” to Congress and still more laws and court orders flouted by the secretary as evidence of malfeasance.
“My constituents consider you a traitor,” said Rep. Ken Buck, Colorado Republican, citing unfathomable fentanyl death figures.
Mr. Mayorkas sought to spread the blame, saying the deadly synthetic opioid has been a problem for years. Republicans countered that the death rate has risen sharply in the last two years.
A key piece of the GOP’s likely impeachment case against Mr. Mayorkas is testimony he delivered last year claiming his department had “operational control” over the border under the definition written into the Secure Fence Act of 2006.
“Yes, we do,” the secretary testified last year.
Under prodding Wednesday, Mr. Mayorkas said he wasn’t given a chance to fully explain himself in the earlier answer and said his point was that under the definition written into law, no administration has achieved operational control.
He says using his own definition — which looks not at results but at effort — he does believe there is operational control.
He said expecting his department to deal with the 11 million to 12 million illegal immigrants already in the U.S. is too much, given the constraints of a broken immigration system. As for newcomers, he said Congress hasn’t given him enough money to detain them while their cases are pending in immigration court — sometimes for six years or more.
Mr. Mayorkas defended his policy of using “parole” powers to allow unauthorized migrants to schedule appointments to be welcomed in despite having no legal visa.
He said the process reduces the number of people trying to sneak past the Border Patrol, cuts smugglers out of the equation and allows authorities to screen people before they show up.
“It is of tremendous utility and its results have proven productive,” he said.
Rep. Jerrold Nadler, New York Democrat, called the GOP complaints about Mr. Mayorkas “evidence-free.”
“Republicans have not established any legitimate grounds to impeach Mr. Mayorkas,” he said.
Republicans complained that Mr. Mayorkas gave Democrats real answers to their questions while playing games with GOP questioners.
Rep. Jim Jordan, Ohio Republican and Judiciary Committee chairman, sent the secretary home with a list of questions to which he owed the panel answers, including how his parole powers are being used and what happened to the 140 people on the terror watchlist that were detected sneaking across the border from Mexico.
Verbal fencing between Mr. Mayorkas and congressional committees has become so commonplace that both sides seemed to approach Wednesday’s installment with little expectation of a constructive conversation.
Those Republicans who did seek answers to specific questions were disappointed.
Rep. Matt Gaetz, Florida Republican, was miffed when Mr. Mayorkas couldn’t say how many of the caught-and-released migrants have been deported, as the secretary has promised will happen to those that don’t win their cases.
“The reason you’re smirking about it, and the reason you won’t answer my question, is because everybody gets the joke,” Mr. Gaetz said.
Republicans had warned Mr. Mayorkas in a letter ahead of time to come prepared with answers to that question in particular, and his failure to do so didn’t sit well.
Later in the hearing, Mr. Mayorkas did say that at least a thousand of the 2.1 million catch-and-release migrants had been deported. But he wouldn’t go beyond that characterization, saying he would deliver better data later.
Mr. Mayorkas also wouldn’t answer when a lawmaker, seeking to draw a comparison to the border, asked him if he locked his doors at night, saying only, “I take care of the safety of my family.”
GOP criticism went beyond immigration, with several lawmakers questioning the department’s role in policing social media postings the government deemed “disinformation” or “misinformation.”
“You are the walking, talking epitome of the very tyrant that our forefathers recognized would gravitate toward government service,” said Rep. Harriet Hageman, Wyoming Republican.
Mr. Mayorkas replied: “Your accusations are false.”
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.