Although he could face impeachment, it is not the Secretary of Homeland Security who has stopped Congress from enacting immigration reforms.
Republicans have been criticizing President Joe Biden for the last three years for stopping the vicious crackdown on migrants at the southern border, which was initiated by former President Donald Trump. Alejandro Mayorkas, the secretary of homeland security, has been their favorite target when it comes to this front. He has been the focus of numerous House hearings due to his alleged “dereliction of duty.” House Homeland Security Chairman Mark Green, R-N.C., declared on Wednesday that his committee will convene a hearing next week to discuss articles of impeachment against Mayorkas, despite the lack of evidence supporting any such “dereliction.”
Not only is the GOP’s campaigning for Mayorkas hilarious, but it also demonstrates the party’s complete lack of morality when it comes to immigration. Even though they know it’s all a performance, these people are a collection of incredibly irresponsible individuals threatening to use a severe weapon. Republicans should examine themselves if they genuinely want to find someone to blame for the catastrophe at the border and elsewhere.
Republicans should examine themselves if they genuinely want to find someone to blame for the catastrophe at the border and elsewhere.
The main accusation made by Republicans against Mayorkas is that he is enforcing the country’s immigration rules unevenly. However, the system is weakening and collapsing since Congress hasn’t passed any new immigration rules in decades. The last bipartisan attempt at change was nearly ten years ago, and Republicans, not Democrats, were the ones who thwarted it. Conservatives have been clamping down on even the smallest gestures at big overhauls since then, accusing them all of being a front door “amnesty” for undocumented migrants.
House Republicans should be relieved that the Senate is currently working to reach a solution on border security without requiring citizenship through a pathway, which was a demand made by the Democrats in previous conversations. No one else should be surprised, though, that House Republicans continue to reject the notion of a compromise, clinging to the misguided belief that their desired immigration measure can be coerced into law. It doesn’t help that a large number of Republicans, including Trump, are adamantly opposed to any potential reduction in the political pressure placed on Biden by those on and off Capitol Hill. According to reports, the former president has already been successful in pressuring Senate Republicans to completely abandon any attempts at agreement, leaving the matter open for discussion in the 2024 election.
Putting politics aside, the majority of Republicans favor a return to the Trump-era measures that inflated the tensions at the southern border. Massive asylum claims backlog caused by Trump’s policies only started to be cleared under Biden. Despite the fact that Congress has not authorized any additional funds to handle the inflow, Mayorkas must abide by both international and domestic asylum regulations. But GOP-led states have chosen to follow Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s example, concentrating more on grandstanding deployments and posturing remarks in defiance of the Supreme Court and the executive branch, rather than cooperating with the administration or applying pressure to Congress.
Telling migrants to turn back as they near the border is one way that Vice President Kamala Harris and other administration officials have tried to fight the political accusations from the GOP on a number of occasions. Additionally, Mayorkas implemented new guidelines for asylum claims: For instance, the government started mandating that all applicants for asylum use the CBP One smartphone app in May of last year. That same month, Mayorkas reiterated that “the border is not open” and that migrants “who do not use available lawful pathways to enter the U.S. now face tougher consequences, including a minimum five-year ban on re-entry and potential criminal prosecution.” Mayorkas also announced a new policy that all individuals who do not use official border crossing locations will be “presumed ineligible for asylum.”
However, despite the fact that the number of Border Patrol agents stationed there has quadrupled since 1992, the GOP continues to incorrectly assert that the southern border is exposed to the elements and practically anarchic. Last week, a resolution denouncing Biden’s “open-border policies” was approved by the House with the support of 14 Democrats and all Republicans. More than half of Americans think that the border “is open and laws are unenforced,” indicating that the messaging is effective, according to a September poll. Crucially, there is proof that this misinformation has, in fact, encouraged more migrants from Central America to head toward the southern border than would have otherwise made the journey.
The number of Border Patrol agents stationed in the southern border has quadrupled since 1992, but the Republican Party continues to erroneously assert that the border is open and practically anarchic.
To be clear, legal experts generally understand the impeachment provision to suggest that even in the event of Mayorkas’ incompetence, the offense would not meet the bar of “high crimes and misdemeanors.” The National Constitution Center stated that “impeachments are not a remedy for government officials who are simply bad at their jobs.” “It is a cure for public office abuses.” It’s difficult to argue that Mayorkas ought to be removed from office since, as a member of the Cabinet, he is at least presumed to be carrying out the policies that the president delegated to him.
Nevertheless, House Republicans are moving forward with their first impeachment vote of a Cabinet member since the 1800s. Even with Republicans holding the smallest majority in recent memory, there is no assurance that these articles, if they make it out of committee, will be approved on the floor. If they do, however, it will be a historical first and a refutation of the idea that the House can ever prioritize facts over politics. Imagine what they could do if they committed that time to genuinely collaborating with Mayorkas to handle the problem they contributed to creating, as opposed to expending so much time and effort attempting to portray him as the demonic gatekeeper throwing open the nation’s doors.
