WASHINGTON — Marching ahead with impeachment plans, House Republicans have set their sights on Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, who they intend to prove is “derelict in his duty” over handling the surge of migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border.
Speaker Mike Johnson gave his nod to Wednesday’s hearing at the Homeland Security Committee, which launches Mayorkas impeachment proceedings at a peculiar political moment: On one side of the Capitol, a bipartisan group of senators has been engaged in almost daily negotiations with Mayorkas over a landmark border security package. On the other, the House wants to remove him from office.
At a new year’s press conference, Rep. Mark Green, the chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, stood with Johnson near the border, blamed Mayorkas for the record number of migrant crossings and vowed, “Accountability is coming, I promise.”
But impeaching a Cabinet secretary is rare, having only happened once before in the nation’s history, when the House impeached Defense Secretary William Belknap in 1876 over bribery. Going after an official for a policy dispute, in this instance over the claim that Mayorkas is not upholding immigration laws, is unprecedented.
