OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Republicans were elected to the House to be a check on the administration of President Joe Biden, and immigration was one of the main drivers of their election victories.
Now they appear to finally be prepared to take action and bring impeachment charges to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
On Friday, House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-MN) called for Mayorkas to be impeached, claiming his “failure to act” as the chief border official necessitates his removal while calling upon Congress to take action.
The representative spoke to Breitbart News and said if the secretary did not voluntarily resign “he should be impeached.”
“They talk about being humane. Children are disappearing. People are getting killed,” he said. “You’ve got 80 people that have come across the southern border that are on the terrorist watch list.”
“This, to me, is the greatest malfeasance, and malfeasance is — it’s not a failure to act — it’s an intentional failure to act. Mayorkas should be impeached,” he said. “I think we should be talking seriously about that regardless of what this feckless Senate might want to do.”
A day before this interview Texas Republican Rep. Michael McCaul accused the Biden administration of engaging in “child abuse.”
“Mayorkas is guilty of child abuse, in my opinion, by not vetting the sponsors of the parents, supposedly, or sponsors of these children,” he said to reporters.
And last week it was reported that a migrant child died in the custody of the United States.
Biden’s Department of Health and Human Services announced on Friday that a migrant child died in U.S. custody.
“The department released a statement on Friday regarding the death of the child but did not reveal where the child died,” Fox News reported.
“The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is deeply saddened by this tragic loss and our heart goes out to the family, with whom we are in touch,” the HHS said. “As is standard practice for any situation involving the death of an unaccompanied child or a serious health outcome, HHS’ Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) Division of Health for Unaccompanied Children (DHUC) is reviewing all clinical details of this case, including all inpatient health care records. A medical examiner investigation is underway.”
“Due to privacy and safety reasons, ORR cannot share further information on individual cases of children who have been in our care,” the department said.
It added, “While in ORR care, children have access to health care, legal services, translation services, and mental and behavioral health counselors and are able to connect with family through a phone call in a private area at a minimum of twice a week.”
Migrant child dies in US custody, HHS confirms https://t.co/ONBV9fv5bi
— Fox News Politics (@foxnewspolitics) May 12, 2023
Still on Sunday Mayorkas was defiant, claiming that he is not concerned about being impeached.
“I want to ask about something my next guest is going to say. This is Republican congressman Mark Green, he’s the chairman of the Homeland Security Committee. He has indicated that he wants to impeach you for the way that you’ve handled the border crisis. Are you worried that that process is going to start? And how will you react?” CNN host Dana Bash said on “State of the Union”
“Dana, I am focused on the work in front of us, meeting the challenge, not only with respect to the southern border, but meeting the challenge of cyber, the cyber threat from cyber criminals and adverse foreign nation states. I am focused on the increasing severity and frequency of extreme weather events. I am focused on the adverse actions of the People’s Republic of China, North Korea, Iran, Russia. I am focused on the work of the Department of Homeland Security. I will continue to focus on that work throughout my tenure,” the secretary said.
He may be confident because he believes the Democrat led Senate would not actually hold him accountable, and he is likely correct.
