The GOP/GAP took back the U.S. House of Representatives in 2022 on the pledge to thwart Amnesty and to stop the illegal alien invasion at the southwest border. But, while the caucus generally shows no sign of wavering on Amnesty, some squishes are wimping out on serious border control. And they cower from impeaching, not only President Biden, but also even his appalling Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. Nor do they want to force the immigration issue into the upcoming debt ceiling fight. Still, patriot Republicans, like Arizona’s Andy Biggs and Texas’ Chip Roy, are pressing for something more than talk—and they believe the debt ceiling fight is the perfect opportunity. Will they stage a revolt of the kind that forced House Speaker Kevin McCarthy to make key concessions to get his job?
Biggs just announced articles of impeachment against Mayorkas. “The first thing that goes when a country is actually devolving is when you lose your geographical integrity,” he told Tucker Carlson. “And Secretary Mayorkas—that’s his main job—he has willfully imposed his own dangerous policies on us,” Biggs continued, channeling VDARE.com. “It’s not negligence. It’s not incompetence. It’s willful” [Mayorkas facing articles of impeachment from GOP lawmaker, by Charles Creitz, Fox News, January 31, 2023].
Biggs’ is the second impeachment effort offered by Republicans in the new Congress. Oklahoma Rep. Pat Fallon also introduced articles of impeachment over Mayorkas’ undermining border security and encouraging illegal immigration. That measure even gained the support of squishes like Texas Rep. Dan Crenshaw. Significantly, Fallon had opposed impeachment in the last Congress, but now thinks it’s time to send a message [House GOP lays groundwork for Mayorkas impeachment as moderates balk, by Melanie Zanona, Manu Raju and Annie Grayer, CNN, January 17, 2023].
The effort to impeach Mayorkas is tacitly supported by GOP leadership. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has called on Mayorkas to resign and backs an impeachment probe of the DHS chief. Ohio’s Jim Jordan and Kentucky’s James Comer, chairmen of the Judiciary and Oversight Committees, plan to hold hearings and investigations into Mayorkas, who has virtually stopped deportations even of criminals, and is responsible for the border collapse. Republican Study Committee Chairman Kevin Hern says the probes will likely build support for impeaching the DHS chief [House GOP leaps headlong into divisive Mayorkas impeachment debate, by Jordain Carney, Politico, February 1, 2023].
But some Republicans still oppose it. “I do think what’s going on at the border is negligence, dereliction of duty, but I’m not convinced that impeaching Mayorkas is going to solve the problem,” Nebraska’s Don Bacon told Politico. “I think we need the election in 2024 to change the White House.”
Other impeachment skeptics include Texas’ Tony Gonzalez, Oklahoma’s Tom Cole, Pennsylvania’s Brian Fitzpatrick, and New York’s Mike Lawler. They all fear a distraction from real legislation. But it’s unclear what serious legislation Republicans can pass when Democrats control the Senate and the White House [House GOP leaps headlong into divisive Mayorkas impeachment debate, by Jordain Carney, Politico, February 1, 2023].
The squishes’ reluctance to impeach Biden is even greater. The president faces scrutiny not only over the border invasion, but also for his handling of classified documents and other misdeeds. Yet GOP leadership seems intent not to impeach him. Several GOP senators have loudly voiced their opposition. They believe it will set a bad precedent, and don’t want to follow the Democrats’ impeachment of Donald Trump. “I don’t think you want to get into where it’s a tit for tat, every two years or four years you’re dealing with impeachment proceedings in the House and Senate,” Senate Minority Whip John Thune told The Hill’s Alexander Bolton last month [Senate GOP pours cold water on idea of impeaching Biden, January 25, 2023].
That’s nonsense. Democrats already set the precedent and they will always find spurious reasons to impeach future Republican presidents. Biden’s willful dereliction of duty at the border is far worse than anything Trump did or was accused of doing.
To do nothing allows Biden’s’ treasonous policies to continue unrebuked—and even, thanks to the Regime Media blackout, unpublicized.
Worst thing is, McCarthy and others are allowing Biden to divert attention from this border treason by focusing on the budgetary aspects of the debt ceiling. Republicans are preparing to demand steep spending cuts to allow the government to borrow more money. That’s all well and good, although politically expensive. But the squishes are more concerned about spending cuts than twisting Biden’s arm to stop the invasion—which might just help us keep a livable country on which to spend money.
The squishes insist they want to focus more on legislation than investigations and impeachments. But they also blanch at substantial measures to control the border.
So, of course, they delayed a bill from Roy to empower the Department of Homeland Security, consistent with existing law, to turn away illegals who claim asylum but cannot be detained, and immediately deport illegals if the Secretary does not have “operational control” of the border. The bill boasts 64 sponsors and appeared to be fast-tracked to go to the House floor.
But some of the same squishes who oppose impeaching Mayorkas pitched a fit. Don Bacon insisted the bill didn’t have enough GOP support and worried it would end asylum (it didn’t—but good!). “We can’t allow the Republican Party to be hijacked,” Gonzales blubbered. “Trying to ban legitimate asylum claims—one, it’s not Christian, and two, to me, it’s very anti-American. So a lot is at stake.” Florida’s Maria Elvira Salazar ludicrously claimed the bill would reject future Albert Einsteins (he arrived here legally). Unfortunately, leadership listened [Early rift over immigration exposes House GOP’s tough path to consensus, by Marianna Sotomayor and Theodoric Meyer, Washington Post, January 23, 2023].
But Roy hasn’t given up.
"This bill is a simple bill: Either detain or turn away"
— Rep. Chip Roy Press Office (@RepChipRoy) January 27, 2023
"It would stop the flow [of migrants across the border], take away power from the cartels, and actually empower the Border Patrol to stop the got-aways and the fentanyl that's flowing into the country, and killing us." https://t.co/5QpwCd5Z7l
Last week, he told Fox News that he plans to make it an issue for lawmakers seeking a deal. “Republicans have got to get with the program and actually do something instead of speaking about it. We’re gonna have to use the debt ceiling fight and the spending fight in September to demand that Biden do the right thing,” he said.
The “right thing” Roy meant is to enact his border bill [Chip Roy calls out Republican colleagues as border crisis rages: It’s time to ‘actually do something,’ by Elizabeth Heckman, Fox News, January 25, 2023].
Biggs agrees:
I hope that in the talk of debt ceilings and Congress’s historical, fiscal mismanagement we don’t lose sight of the ongoing crisis on our southern border. Both are critical issues that are caught up in the Biden administration’s indifference to short- and long-term pain that will result from its radical policies.
[The Biden team is digging in its feet with spending and border, by Andy Biggs, The Hill, January 30, 2023]
The Biden Team refuses to change its ways with the border and federal spending.
— Rep Andy Biggs (@RepAndyBiggsAZ) January 30, 2023
If you ever wondered whether your government was for or against you, simply look at Biden and Mayorkas.https://t.co/eU2Pyhbcxw
Roy and Biggs have a proven track record of making leadership concede to their demands. They helped lead the House Speaker fight against McCarthy. They could use the same power to make the GOP demand more border security over the debt ceiling. If squishes like Gonzales can derail border legislation, the conservative majority can put its foot down and insist on immigration demands in this spending battle.
Roy is right about Republicans and the border invasion. Talking won’t solve the problem. They must do something. Republicans cannot run in 2024 on doing nothing about the border while they control the House. They can’t let a few spineless compromisers sabotage a winning position. Voters must know they’re serious.
If a bill fails to pass the Senate or Biden vetoes it, that’s on the Democrats. Make the Historic American Nation’s enemy campaign on Open Borders.
By impeaching Mayorkas and passing legislation in the House, Republicans will show they have a plan to end the immigration disaster.
Then they just need to win the White House and Senate to finish the job.
It can be done.
Washington Watcher II [Email him] is an anonymous DC insider.
