OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
A growing number of Border Patrol agents, frustrated by the Biden administration’s lack of enforcement of the country’s laws against illegal immigration, are increasingly calling for the Senate to move on impeaching Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
Five federal agents who spoke to the Washington Examiner after the House voted to impeach Mayorkas on Feb. 13 say the job has been horrendous since he was confirmed by the Democrat-controlled Senate in February 2021.
Some of them also fear that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) will move to dismiss the two articles before a trial can even begin.
“I want to see our government take action!!” a California-based agent wrote in a text message to the outlet when asked about the impeachment. “It took them long enough.”
Another California-based federal law enforcement agent said that Mayorkas, who has led the DHS for three years, ought to be held accountable for the chaos at the border.
“Yes, I would like to see a trial,” said the agent, who has been with the Border Patrol for 20 years. “There are no consequences for smugglers right now. We have so many [people who fail to yield to agents] and smugglers loading [vehicles with illegal immigrants] right on the border.”
The same agent told the Examiner that prosecution rates for the number of smuggling cases weren’t comparable, which meant that few smugglers faced the consequences after arrest.
“Smuggling is at the highest. They know we won’t prosecute them,” the second agent said. “He let it get out of control. He is responsible as head of this agency.”
The outlet noted further:
Since Mayorkas took office as President Joe Biden’s pick to lead the department, more than 8 million non-U.S. citizens have been encountered at the border. The large majority of immigrants entered the country illegally. Seeking asylum is not required to be released into the United States, as millions have been.
That said, Mayorkas works for Biden and is enacting the president’s policies. On Biden’s first day in office, he ended or reversed nearly all of former President Donald Trump’s strict border enforcement policies like “Remain in Mexico” and construction of the wall. Biden’s administration also eventually ended Title 42.
A third agent called the House’s narrow 214-213 vote to impeach Mayorkas “amazing” but noted he wasn’t optimistic anything would happen to the DHS boss.
“I want to see him GONE!” the agent, who is based in Texas, wrote in a text. “Realistically speaking, nothing will happen.”
A fourth Border Patrol official who works in the Washington, D.C., headquarters office said field agents are frustrated and angry.
“For the most part, everyone I’ve spoken to is content that it’s happened,” the official said regarding Mayorkas’ impeachment. “It’s big, but we’re worried that the position will be filled with someone equal or worse than him.”
Senate Republicans have been urging Schumer to proceed with a trial once the House submits the two impeachment articles later this month. In the trial, senators act as jurors while a panel of House members presents the evidence.
However, there are reports that Schumer is not interested in holding a trial. If he decides to table the impeachment effort, it would be an unprecedented move and would signify the first time in 22 impeachment efforts that the upper chamber has discarded the articles.
“With the Mayorkas impeachment, you know what Schumer wants to do? He doesn’t even want to have a trial,” Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) told Fox News in an interview on Sunday. “In over 200 years of our nation’s history, the Senate has never once tabled articles of impeachment. That has never happened.”
A fifth Border Patrol agent said the impeachment effort will be for naught.
“It won’t change a thing. All the work the Border Patrol has done over the years has essentially been for nothing,” the agent said. “The morale and motivation to go out and work groups has been destroyed and will take a generation of agents before it will ever begin to return.”
