During this week’s hearing before the House Homeland Security Committee, Republican members showed up well-prepared to challenge Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas over the border crisis. As the secretary sat, and as Democrats helplessly watched, one GOP lawmaker after another tore into the DHS boss with a long list of failures.
In one exchange, Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.) reminded Mayorkas the stated mission of the third-largest federal agency literally promises “security” of the nation’s border, but the Biden administration is failing that mission. The DHS boss, the GOP rep said, is currently in charge when the U.S. Border Patrol has recorded a record-breaking jump in illegal border crossings and a record-breaking drop in deportations of illegal aliens.
Johnson went on to state the view of his fellow GOP lawmakers – and much of the American public – that the overrun border is not accidental, or due to incompetence, but it is being welcomed by the Biden administration and for that Mayorkas deserves to be impeached.
“It is your policies, and because of them,” Rep. Johnson told Mayorkas, “that our entire country is becoming a crime scene.”
In his remarks, Mayorkas blamed the Trump administration and said President Joe Biden “inherited a broken and dismantled system” that is unable to manage what he called the current level of “migratory flows” across the border.
“Only Congress can fix this,” Mayorkas said, placing the blame on the lawmakers in front of him, “and yet we have managed an unprecedented number of non-citizens seeking to enter the United States."
“Own the moment,” a second frustrated lawmaker, Rep. Clay Higgins, (R-La.), told the DHS boss. “You've been called upon to resign by myself and others. Next year, if we have the majority in this committee, which we shall, if you're still in office you'll face impeachment.”
