OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Now that House Republicans have regained control of the chamber after the party received millions more votes than Democrats nationwide, they are expected to launch a series of oversight hearings and investigations into the Biden administration, much like Democrats did to then-President Donald Trump when they took the House in 2018.
But in addition to investigations, there could also be impeachment proceedings — against President Joe Biden, for one, but also against other officials in his administration, including Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, who has overseen a historic rise in illegal immigration and smuggling of deadly fentanyl that is killing tens of thousands of Americans annually, USA Today reported.
“According to the CDC, 107,375 people in the United States died of drug overdoses and drug poisonings in the 12-month period ending in January 2022. A staggering 67 percent of those deaths involved synthetic opioids like fentanyl,” says the Drug Enforcement Administration on its website.
One border state Republican is already paving the way for Mayorkas’ impeachment, the Washington Times reported.
“While Joe Biden serves as the figurehead for his administration, much of the administration’s immigration policy is spearheaded by Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas,” Rep. Andy Biggs of Arizona says in a short film that has recently been released called “Alien Invasion.” “He has deliberately dismantled the nation’s border and immigration policies, and it’s a threat to the sovereignty and security of our nation.”
Biggs introduced articles of impeachment in August 2021 against Mayorkas, the Times noted further. In them, he accused the DHS secretary of losing “operational control” over the border and failing to implement the Trump-era Title 42 rule.
The articles were co-sponsored by dozens of GOP lawmakers, including Reps. Louie Gohmert of Texas, Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, and Lauren Boebert of Colorado.
In an interview earlier this year with Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk on Real America’s Voice, Biggs laid out the plan and also noted that Attorney General Merrick Garland could be a potential impeachment target as well over his policies.
WATCH:
“[Mayorkas’s] abandonment of his duty is willful and purposeful,” Biggs said. “Secretary Mayorkas there’s no question in my mind, he should go. He should be impeached.”
The Texas Tribune reported last month that Biggs’ impeachment resolution against Mayorkas will also have the support of several GOP senators, such as Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham.
Also in October, the two senators wrote a letter to Mayorkas accusing him of a “gross dereliction of duty” over the chaotic conditions on the border, which have seen more than a year’s worth of record-breaking illegal border crossings and drug smuggling.
“These astronomically high numbers are due in no small part to the political decision to rescind a number of President Trump’s policies that were stemming the flow of illegal aliens and illicit drugs across the southern border,” they wrote.
“Withdrawing the Remain in Mexico policy, ending Title 42 expulsions, terminating border wall construction contracts, and countless other decisions, coupled with your own lax border policies, act as ‘pull’ factors that have encouraged millions of aliens to undertake the dangerous journey to the U.S.-Mexico border,” they said, going on to rip Mayorkas’ policies for exacerbating the drug problem.
Nevertheless, impeachment will be a reach, as the Western Journal reported, though a necessary one heading into 2024:
Even with a super team of Republicans from both chambers going after Mayorkas and others in the Biden administration, successful impeachment convictions are still a stretch, given that Democrats will likely protect their own at all costs.
But as many have pointed out, the optics of an impeachment trial and the information gleaned in the process will at least serve as a method to inform the entire American public as to how bad things indeed are, as one could argue that anyone who doesn’t watch Fox News might not be fully aware of how absurd the crisis has become.
Former President Donald Trump, who announced earlier this week he was running for the GOP nomination again next cycle, made border security a priority during his first term, and is likely to do so again if he wins his race.
