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A House Republican on a key immigration subcommittee introduced Tuesday that he’ll vote in opposition to impeaching Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, dealing a big blow to GOP efforts to question the Biden official forward of a vote anticipated later within the day.
“The only way to stop the border invasion is to replace the Biden administration at the ballot box. Swapping one leftist for another is a fantasy, solves nothing, excuses Biden’s culpability, and unconstitutionally expands impeachment that someday will bite Republicans,” Rep. Tom McClintock, R-Calif., who heads the Judiciary subcommittee on immigration, mentioned on X, previously identified as Twitter.
Later on the House ground, he referred to as it a “stunt.”
HOUSE TEES UP VOTE ON IMPEACHING MAYORKAS OVER BORDER CRISIS
UNITED STATES – JUNE 17: Rep. Tom McClintock, R-Calif., arrives for the House Judiciary Committee markup on the Justice in Policing Act within the Capitol Visitor Center on Wednesday, June 17, 2020. (Photo By Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call/Sipa USA/POOL)No Use UK. No Use Germany. (Reuters)
The House is anticipated to vote later on two articles of impeachment, which accuse Mayorkas of getting “repeatedly violated laws enacted by Congress regarding immigration and border security” and of getting “made false statements to Congress” that the border is safe and closed and that DHS is in operational management of the border.
McClintock’s “no” joins that of Rep. Ken Buck, R-Colo. Fox News Digital can also be advised that Rep, Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., additionally raised issues about impeaching Mayorkas at a closed-door assembly of the House Republican Conference. The House majority is slim and Republicans can solely afford three defections if all lawmakers are current and all Democrats vote in opposition to impeachment.
Should the impeachment push fail, it will signify an infinite blow to House Republicans who spent a lot of 2023 investigating Mayorkas for his dealing with of the disaster on the southern border, earlier than referring articles to the House Homeland Security Committee late final 12 months.
The committee superior the 2 articles final week. If Mayorkas is impeached, then it’s going to go to the Senate for a trial.
Speaker Mike Johnson mentioned that he had spoken to McClintock and Buck about their objections to the transfer to question the Cabinet Secretary — which might make it the primary impeachment since 1876.
MAYORKAS LASHES OUT AT ‘BASELESS’ GOP ALLEGATIONS AHEAD OF KEY IMPEACHMENT VOTE
” I respect everybody’s view. I understand the heavy weight that impeachment is…next to the declaration of war, I believe impeachment is probably the heaviest authority that the House has given in the Constitution,” he mentioned. “We carry that weight very carefully. What I will say about this Mayorkas impeachment is that the Homeland Security Committee has done an extraordinary job, a very deliberate job as you know over a long period of time.
Republicans have accused Mayorkas and the administration of fueling the crisis with “open border” policies including “catch-and-release,” reduced interior enforcement and the rolling back of Trump-era policies they believe helped secure the border. They also accuse Mayorkas of not following immigration law, which they say demands the detention of illegal immigrants, and of failing to secure the border. Mayorkas has vigorously denied those claims.
“The constitutional case and proof for impeaching Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas is powerful and compelling,” Committee Chair Mark Green mentioned in an op-ed for The Washington Examiner this week. “My committee’s practically year-long investigation recognized Secretary Mayorkas’ willful and systemic refusal to adjust to U.S. immigration legal guidelines and his breach of the general public belief as the first drivers of the unprecedented disaster at America’s borders.”
Representative Mark Green, a Republican from Tennessee and chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, during a House Homeland Security Committee hearing in Washington, DC, US, on Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2024. The committee is moving forward with a fast-paced impeachment bid against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, which may play out in a matter of weeks, following Republicans’ concerted effort to use turmoil at the border as a primary line of attack against President Joe Biden in the lead-up to the November elections. (Photographer: Graeme Sloan/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
But the process has come under fire from the Department of Homeland Security, as well as House Democrats and some Republicans. They see a pre-determined politically motivated push for impeachment based on policy disagreements rather than high crimes and misdemeanors, and the Biden administration has instead pointed to efforts made to secure the border by Mayorkas — including his role in a bipartisan Senate deal released this week. They have also pointed to more than 500,000 removals since May and record seizures of fentanyl at the border.
“House Republicans have failed to offer any reliable Constitutional grounds for impeachment in accordance with numerous authorized consultants of various political beliefs, House Republicans’ personal prior impeachment witness, and their fellow GOP Members,” DHS officers mentioned in a current memo.
Mayorkas himself defended himself in opposition to impeachment final week in a letter to Republicans, by which he slammed the allegations as “false” and “baseless.”
U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas holds a press conference at a U.S. Border Patrol station on January 08, 2024 in Eagle Pass, Texas. (John Moore/Getty Images)
“I guarantee you that your false accusations don’t rattle me and don’t divert me from the legislation enforcement and broader public service mission to which I’ve devoted most of my profession and to which I stay devoted,” Mayorkas said.
Other voices against the impeachment of Mayorkas include Jonathan Turley, who was a witness for the House majority earlier this year, and Alan Dershowitz, who was former President Trump’s defense lawyer during the first impeachment effort against him. Former Bush-era DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff recently called on Republicans to “drop this impeachment charade” and work with Mayorkas to solve the crisis.
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