OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
A GOP senator from Kansas has taken a first step in impeaching President Joe Biden’s DHS chief after Republicans have railed at him for years over his inability to secure the southwest border and gain control of the illegal migrant and drug smuggling crises.
“Sen. Roger Marshall (R-KS) introduced a no-confidence resolution against Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas on Thursday, marking the first effort in the Senate to mirror impeachment efforts in the House,” the Washington Examiner reported.
Marshall has been a vocal opponent of Mayorkas’s management of the immigration crisis at the US-Mexico border. During a recent back-and-forth with Mayorkas, Marshall asserted that he would be “derelict” in his duties as a senator if he failed to take action to address the crisis.
Rep. Andy Biggs on Calls to Impeach DHS Secretary Mayorkas: “I Have the Impeachment Articles Ready To Go” https://t.co/ULkwNipQbA
— The Gateway Pundit (@gatewaypundit) April 21, 2023
“There isn’t one American who believes our southern border is secure,” Marshall said in a release on Thursday. “In the real world, if you fail at your job, you get fired — the federal government should be no different.”
He went on to say during a Fox News interview on impeaching Mayorkas: “I don’t think [The House] has a choice. I think it’s what Americans are demanding.”
“My father, a lifetime chief-of-police, he’s concerned about the safety and security of his family, of me, even just sitting down with a group of Senators on Monday, eight of us in one room and the end conversation was; ‘how do we protect our staff? Our staff members walking from the Capitol to their apartments aren’t safe.’ These are the types of conversations we’re having rather than addressing the issues of inflation, the cost of gasoline, the cost of groceries,” he added.
“Five million people crossed the border illegally under his watch, we have 400,000 convicted criminal aliens still in this country, and he’s doing nothing about it. That’s the challenge here – he doesn’t want to do his job,” Marshall continued. “This secretary is derelict in his duties. He’s gotta go.”
According to a nine-page resolution, Mayorkas is alleged to have failed in various ways, including an increase in immigration, such as the arrival of around 15,000 Haitians near the Texas border, and a rise in drug trafficking and overdoses. Additionally, the resolution accuses Mayorkas of being untruthful to Congress about his management of the border, with Mayorkas having claimed that he has maintained control over the border, the Examiner noted.
Mayorkas has argued, however, that the definition of a secure border laid out under the Secure Fence Act of 2006 has not been achieved by any administration since it was passed.
“The Secure Fence Act provides that operational control means that not a single individual crosses the border illegally. And it’s for that reason that prior secretaries and myself have said that under that definition, no administration has had operational control,” Mayorkas said.
“As I have testified under oath multiple times, we use a lens of reasonableness in defining operational control. Are we maximizing the resources that we have to deliver the most effective results? And under that definition, we are doing so very much to gain operational control,” he added.
Even if the resolution calling for Mayorkas’s impeachment were to pass the Democratic-led Senate, it would have little direct effect on the secretary’s job. Additionally, the resolution does not initiate any impeachment procedures, which can only be triggered by the House.
While some GOP lawmakers have expressed a desire to impeach Mayorkas, no such proceeding has been initiated at this time.
Still, Republican calls to impeach have increased in recent weeks amid a new controversy involving a troublesome app for migrants developed by the Biden administration.
“The overwhelming majority of requests made by migrants for an exception to the Title 42 public health order using the recently-expanded CBP One app have been accepted, with 99% of migrants being found to have met the criteria — just as the app continues to face scrutiny from both the left and the right,” Fox News reported Saturday.
In January, the Biden administration broadened the scope of the CBP One app to include migrants who are seeking an exemption to Title 42. This public health order, which was put in place during the COVID-19 pandemic, permits the quick removal of migrants at the southern border, the news outlet noted.
Migrants can utilize the CBP One app to submit information, such as their photo, and arrange an appointment at a port of entry to request an exception to the Title 42 order. This order is expected to expire next month. The Biden administration has claimed that the app is crucial in creating a secure, well-organized, and compassionate border process and that it discourages unlawful immigration between ports of entry, the report continued.
According to a CBP spokesperson who spoke with Fox News Digital earlier in the week, over 75,000 applications have been completed or scheduled until April 25th. The spokesperson also mentioned that appointment slots fill up quickly, often within just a few minutes after becoming available.
“But of those migrants who have had their appointments, the spokesperson said that fewer than 1% have been found not to have met the exception criteria,” the outlet continued.
“It means that the overwhelming majority of those who secure an appointment with the app are approved for an exception then moved into Title 8 processing — which is the regular authority for immigration removal proceedings for migrants without documents,” the report said.
