Impeachment is bustin’ out all over [Comer wants Biden impeached, teases more details on family loans: ‘This is going to be a big week,’ by Ryan King, NY Post, November 5, 2023]. But while President Biden is of course, in son Hunter’s immortal words, the “Big Guy,” the reviving impeachment drive against Homeland Security chief Alejandro Mayorkas may be more important—because it will focus on the existential issue of immigration, rather than mundane if spectacular corruption.
Mayorkas and Missouri’s Republican Senator Josh Hawley crossed swords on Capitol Hill last week. Hawley demanded to know if DHS had fired a pro-Hamas employee, which Mayorkas refused to answer. Mayorkas even complained about his treatment from Hawley, saying it was offensive to him as the child of a Holocaust survivor [Hawley, Mayorkas get personal at hearing: ‘Despicable,’ by Rebecca Beitsch, The Hill, October 31, 2023]. The fight reignited GOP interest in impeaching Mayorkas with GOP lawmakers once again bringing up the matter. An example must be made of this Regime because of the Great Replacement illegal-alien invasion it has sponsored. But Republicans have yet to punish anyone. That needs to change, and the new House Speaker may be the one to take action.
The Mayorkas-Hawley battle drew the most media scrutiny from his recent Senate testimony, but the DHS chief provided an important detail that supports his impeachment. Under his watch, at least 600,000 “gotaways” slipped across the border to disappear in fiscal 2022.
And this is just the latest datapoint for Mayorkas’s failure. More than 2.4 million illegals were encountered at the southwest border in fiscal 2022 [Mayorkas confirms over 600,000 illegal immigrants evaded law enforcement at southern border last fiscal year, by Adam Shaw, Fox News, October 31, 2023]. Homeland Security has done nothing to stem the tide. On Mayorkas’s orders, the Border Patrol has cut razor wire and fences placed by Texas authorities [Judge Orders Border Agents to Stop Cutting Texas’ Barbed Wire Fence, by J. David Goodman, New York Times, October 31, 2023]. He’s restricted the Border Patrol’s use of horses and other means to wrangle illegals. And deportations have plummeted to record lows despite the growing illegal population. Indeed, Mayorkas announced that the Regime would only deport “serious criminals,” reassuring the vast majority of illegals that they could stay in peace.
The latest reason to impeach Mayorkas: the rising terror threat. Border agents stopped more than 700 terror suspects on the FBI’s watch list at points of entry and trying to enter the country illegally in fiscal 2023. Border agents caught 169 who tried to jump the southwest border. Indeed, FBI Director Christopher Wray warned at the same hearing with Mayorkas that America faces an unprecedented terror threat over the war in Gaza [FBI Director Christopher Wray warns Congress of terror threats inspired by Hamas’ attack on Israel, by Robert Legare, CBS, October 31, 2023]. It’s very possible terrorists have entered through the southern border thanks to the policies implemented by Biden and Mayorkas.
Hawley told Fox News’ Sean Hannity that the DHS secretary “needs to be impeached” for his poor handling of the border crisis.
”When you systematically disregard the laws of the country, when you systematically mislead the American people and lie and lie and lie to Congress and the American people, you’re not doing your job, and you should be removed.“
“He’s not going to resign, Joe Biden is not going to remove him; he is going to have to be removed by the House, and I think that proceeding should go forward. If ever there was a candidate for an impeachment inquiry, it would be Mayorkas.”
Hawley calls for Mayorkas ‘to be impeached,’ says terrorists have ‘invitation; to come to US, by Conrad Hoyt, Washington Examiner, November 1, 2023
Georgia Rep. Buddy Carter echoed that call. He said Mayorkas must be impeached because he “failed the American people more so than just about any other secretary that we’ve had ... his work at the border has been dismal, and at best it has just been awful” [Rep. Carter to Newsmax: Impeach Mayorkas, by Theodore Bunker, Newsmax, October 31, 2023].
The most important endorsement for Mayorkas’ impeachment may have come from the new House Speaker, Louisiana’s Mike Johnson. Last Thursday, he said the DHS chief had committed impeachable offenses, but curiously added that “we only have so much time and resources to go after that” [Johnson says he believes DHS secretary ‘committed impeachable offenses,’ by Lauren Irwin, The Hill, November 2, 2023]. The ambiguity left unclear whether Johnson would push for Mayorkas’ removal.
Before becoming speaker, Johnson did endorse impeaching Mayorkas. And he’s much more open to impeaching President Biden than former Speaker Kevin McCarthy [Speaker Johnson raises conservatives’ hopes for Biden impeachment, by Jordain Carney and Olivia Beavers, Politico, October 26, 2023].
Johnson and other GOP leaders must act. Just a month ago, Texas Senator Ted Cruz suggested a Mayorkas impeachment would unite the House GOP and “highlight the incredible human suffering that the Biden administration’s open borders are causing,” Cruz said in a radio interview. “They should have done that already” [Sen. Cruz: Impeaching Mayorkas Will Unify House GOP, by Charles Kim, Newsmax, October 5, 2023].
Cruz is right to wonder why House Republicans haven’t acted. When the GOP won the majority last November, impeaching Mayorkas seemed all but certain. Then-Speaker McCarthy supported it, while dismissing impeaching Biden. The primary purpose of this year’s border hearings was to build a case against Mayorkas.
But all that energy seemed to dissipate during the summer. Some Republicans felt the charge of “dereliction of duty” wasn’t enough. One anonymous GOP lawmaker told Politico in August that “incompetence isn’t an impeachable offense.” Nebraska Rep. Don Bacon and Colorado Rep. Ken Buck weren’t thrilled with the idea, either. Buck dismissed it as the GOP’s frivolous fixation on the “new shiny object every week.” Bacon and Buck believed that removing Mayorkas wouldn’t change the Regime’s pro-invasion policies because the president would pick someone equally as bad as the current DHS head [The impeachment effort losing steam in the House GOP, by Jordain Carney, Politico, August 8, 2023].
Of course that misses the point. Impeachment is about sending a message. It’s unlikely the Senate would convict Mayorkas anyway, so worries that Biden would appoint someone worse are unfounded. But impeachment would have signaled to the public the importance of the immigration issue. It sets a precedent that failing to uphold federal immigration law will get you impeached. It puts the invasion front and center in the public consciousness.
Besides, impeaching Mayorkas has no downsides. Moderates need not worry about hitting back at the man arguably most responsible for the border invasion. Seventy-one percent of Americans are dissatisfied with Biden’s border policies. That’s a huge demographic to hold Biden or Mayorkas responsible for this chaos in Congress [Fox poll: Americans disapprove of Biden’s border policies, by Eric Bazail-Eimil, Politico, October 11, 2023].
However, Republicans may not impeach Mayorkas for another reason: They want to spend their political capital on impeaching Biden. Problem is, they won’t impeach Biden because he has invited a full-scale invasion of his own country, but instead because of his sketchy business deals and relationship with his son, Hunter.
Biden certainly deserves scrutiny for that, but it won’t push immigration to the fore of public debate. It will redirect focus to Biden’s finances and other issues that don’t matter to the National Question [Biden impeachment push reaches crescendo under Speaker Johnson, by Zachary Basu, Axios, November 2, 2023]. Biden’s outrageous corruption is not an existential threat to the nation. The border invasion is.
Southwest Border Encounters of ordinary illegal aliens.
This table provides a summary of USBP encounters of non-U.S. citizens with records within the Terrorist Screening Dataset at the time of their encounter between U.S. ports of entry.
That’s what matters to voters and what requires congressional action. Voters didn’t care about Trump getting impeached over a phone call with Ukraine in 2019. It didn’t figure into the presidential election at all. That’s why it’s smarter to impeach for an issue that matters.
Whatever Republicans do about Biden, they must impeach the man who oversees immigration enforcement—Mayorkas. It would demonstrate that Republicans are more than talk about this issue.
Speaker Johnson needs an issue to unite his divided caucus and send a clear message to the lawless president. Impeaching Mayorkas would do it.
The border invasion worsens every day. Republicans can no longer avoid punishing those who sponsored it.
Washington Watcher II [Email him] is an anonymous DC insider.
