Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told House Republicans on Tuesday that he is refusing to testify in the impeachment inquiry against him, declaring the allegations to be “false.”
Mayorkas made the comments in a letter to House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Rep. Mark Green (R-TN), which was sent on the same day that the committee was planning to mark up the impeachment articles against him before sending them to the House floor for a vote. The DHS secretary has not testified to the committee at all during the process.
“I assure you that your false accusations do not rattle me and do not divert me from the law enforcement and broader public service mission to which I have devoted most of my career and to which I remain devoted,” Mayorkas wrote in the letter, which was the first time he has directly responded to the chairman about the effort to impeach him.
He went on to claim that Congress was responsible for fixing the border crisis through legislation, arguing that the current immigration laws were not enough to deal with the problem — despite the fact that the Biden administration has caused the crisis by openly refusing to enforce many immigration laws and reversing many immigration laws passed by the Trump administration.
January 20th, 2021:
-Day 1 of the Biden Administration
-Border wall immediately defunded
-Emergency Declaration withdrawn
-Deportation of illegal aliens paused
-Remain In Mexico policy terminatedOpening up the border was literally one of their top priorities starting from… pic.twitter.com/60oirwvPW7
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) January 27, 2024
“Our immigration laws were simply not built for 21st-century migration patterns,” Mayorkas wrote, citing several factors that supposedly cause mass illegal immigration.
He then ignored the Biden administration’s facilitation of illegal immigration at the southern border, instead claiming that the border crisis is “facilitated by human smuggling organizations that exploit migrants as part of a billion-dollar criminal enterprise.”
“We need a legislative solution and only Congress can provide it,” Mayorkas added, claiming Congress needed to allocate additional funding to hire more law enforcement personnel and to purchase more equipment.
"The facts tell the truth–Secretary Mayorkas has requested less detention space." – @RepMTG
Why do Democrats continue to use their baseless argument that more resources will fix the border crisis when their own DHS Secretary is actively cutting resources? pic.twitter.com/W6D7UbXcKT
— House Homeland GOP (@HomelandGOP) January 30, 2024
“Instead, you claim that we have failed to enforce our immigration laws. That is false,” Mayorkas continued. “We have provided Congress and your Committee hours of testimony, thousands of documents, hundreds of briefings, and much more information that demonstrates quite clearly how we are enforcing the law.”
The House Homeland Security Committee refuted Mayorkas’ claim that he had not failed to enforce immigration laws in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, pointing out several failures and efforts by the Biden administration to actually facilitate illegal immigration.
The committee noted in the post that Mayorkas has “unlawfully used mass parole” and taken advantage of the CBP One app to support its efforts at mass paroling illegal aliens into the United States. They also explained that the DHS secretary has “refused to detain illegal aliens as required by law” and “ignored [a] court order to reimplement Remain in Mexico.”
“His actions are intentional & he must be impeached,” the post concluded.
Secretary Mayorkas has:
❌Unlawfully used mass parole
❌Abused the CBP One app in support of mass parole
❌Refused to detain illegal aliens as required by law
❌Ignored court order to reimplement Remain in MexicoHis actions are intentional & he must be impeached.
— House Homeland GOP (@HomelandGOP) January 30, 2024
The two articles of impeachment filed against Mayorkas accuse him of “willful and systemic refusal to comply with the law” and “breach of public trust.” The impeachment vote will likely be held before the end of this week. If the effort succeeds, Mayorkas will become the first Cabinet official to be impeached in nearly 150 years. However, it is highly unlikely that Mayorkas will be removed from office, as it would require a two-thirds majority vote from the Democrat-controlled Senate.
Secretary Mayorkas has willfully and systemically refused to comply with the laws passed by Congress and breached the trust of Congress and the American people. pic.twitter.com/3tWpGVt6nJ
— Rep. Mark Green (@RepMarkGreen) January 30, 2024
Meanwhile, Green also responded to Mayorkas’ letter just hours after receiving it, declaring in a statement that “Secretary Mayorkas’ 11th-hour response to the Committee is inadequate and unbecoming of a Cabinet secretary.”
He also noted that Mayorkas’ last-minute letter “indicates the contempt with which he views Congress, the American people, and the Constitution he swore an oath to defend.”