‘Derelict’: Lawmakers Demand Mayorkas’s Impeachment as Border Crisis Deepens

On Thursday, the crisis on America’s southern border entered unprecedented waters as the Texas National Guard seized control of a key migrant processing center in Eagle Pass, blocking Border Patrol from entering the area. The move highlighted the urgency of a spiraling catastrophe that lawmakers say must be dealt with vigorously, including impeaching Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

As noted by the editors at National Review, who called for Mayorkas’s impeachment on Friday, “By some estimates, since Biden took office there have been over 7.5 million enforcement encounters nationwide and over 6 million illegal crossings. Customs and Border Protection has seized more than 27,000 pounds of fentanyl just in fiscal year 2023.” They go on to argue that the Biden administration is lawlessly “ignoring the fact that, under federal statute, illegal immigrants must be detained until they are removed or given asylum or some other relief is granted.”

The editors conclude that “[t]his kind of purposeful neglect of the duties of one’s office is precisely an offense for which impeachment is a constitutional remedy. Impeaching Secretary Mayorkas would draw more attention to the border crisis and perhaps create more pressure on the president to carry out the duties that the law and our constitutional system impose on him.”

On Thursday’s “Washington Watch with Tony Perkins,” Senator Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) concurred, pointing to how the Biden administration is releasing illegal immigrants into the U.S. with few conditions.

“Joe Biden is saying, ‘Don’t worry about it. … Here’s a work visa. Here’s a phone. You don’t have to even show up for a court date or do anything at all. You are paroled indefinitely,’ for all practical purposes,” he explained. “What the law clearly states is he’s supposed to do that on a case by case basis, and he’s doing that thousands of people at a time. And that’s why we should impeach Secretary Mayorkas now. And in 300 days, we should fire Joe Biden.”

Marshall further contended that Biden’s border policies are porous by design. “I really think that Joe Biden doesn’t want to solve this problem. I think he’s very happy to have 10, 12, 13,000 people crossing the border every day, hoping that [Democrats] might pick up an extra congressional seat or two or three. And you look up here on Capitol Hill, and two or three seats can make all the difference in the world, let alone a purple state and a Senate seat.”

As he went on to explain, Marshall led a vote of no confidence in Mayorkas earlier this week on the Senate floor in order to build momentum for an eventual impeachment.

“Look, he’s derelict in his job. He has broken his oath,” the senator underscored. “He refuses to execute the law of the land that the [Secure] Fence Act of 2006 requires him to maintain operational control of the border. And there’s no one in this country that thinks he has operational control of the border, and … he broke the law as far as how to handle the parole situation. … Now the impeachment has to start over on the House side. But my hope was the night before their proceedings started, we put some wind behind their sails. … [P]ublic opinion also helps drive the momentum of an impeachment hearing. So public opinion is important. And we were trying to help get that message out of exactly why Mayorkas is incompetent, why he’s derelict in his duties, why he should be impeached.”