WASHINGTON – House Speaker Mike Johnson said Friday that he intends to hold a floor vote to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas “as soon as possible” for allegedly facilitating record-breaking illegal immigration along the US-Mexico border.
The House Homeland Security Committee will hold a markup Tuesday on articles of impeachment against the 64-year-old Mayorkas — as Republicans blame the border crisis on the policies of the Biden administration.
“When we return next week, with necessity, the House Internal Security Committee will move forward with Articles of Impeachment against Secretary Mayorkas. A floor vote will be held as soon as possible thereafter,” Johnson (R-La.) wrote to fellow Republicans in a letter he called “dear colleagues”.
Mayorkas will be the second Cabinet secretary in US history to be impeached, after Secretary of War William Belknap in 1876 — setting up what will be intense election-year Senate hearings focused on President Biden’s immigration actions.
Johnson issued the advice as bipartisan Senate negotiations on an additional spending package that included stalled border assistance stalled.
The House Speaker wrote that “the Senate can’t seem to reach any agreement” to attach Biden’s proposed $106 billion bill that would primarily fund military aid to Ukraine and Israel.
“If the rumors about the contents of the draft proposal are true, it will be dead on arrival in the House anyway,” Johnson wrote.
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“Since the day I became Speaker, I have assured our Senate colleagues, the House will not accept any counter proposal if it does not actually solve the problems that have been created by the subversive policies of the administration.”
Johnson’s letter came just a day after reports that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), a longtime foe of former President Donald Trump, had accused the former president of lobbying Senate Republicans to kill any border deal so that Trump could retain the leadership of the anti- -Biden.
The speaker wrote that if Biden is serious about border security, he should take unilateral action to make changes to signal to Republicans that he will implement the provisions of any agreement.
“The facts show that President Biden and Homeland Security Secretary Mayorkas willfully ignored and actively undermined our nation’s immigration laws,” Johnson wrote.
“My office has documented at least 64 specific actions taken by his administration that effectively opened our borders and fueled the current chaos. Instead of accepting accountability, President Biden is now trying to blame Congress for what HE himself deliberately created.”
Johnson continued: “Many of our voters have asked an important question: ‘What’s the point of negotiating new laws with an administration that won’t enforce the laws already on the books?’ If President Biden wants us to believe he is serious about protecting our nation’s sovereignty, he needs to show his good intentions by taking immediate action to get it. He should sign an order now to end the mass release of illegal immigrants and dangerous people into our country. If he wants our conference to see him as a negotiator in good faith, he can start with a stroke of the pen.”
The number of illegal crossings at the southern border hit an all-time record of more than 276,000 in December, according to preliminary data reported last month by Fox News.
Many people who cross illegally are allowed into the US to await a court decision on their asylum status and are entitled to a work permit because their claims are pending before a backlog review system.
Mayorkas, who has repeatedly insisted at congressional hearings that “the border is secure,” said in January that more than 85% of those arrested for crossing the border illegally had been released into the US – up from 71% in October and 74% in November .
The Biden administration has also established a special “parole” program for citizens of Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela that allows 30,000 people each month from those countries to enter the US through regular means such as flying and then await the outcome of their cases.
Nearly 2.5 million people were arrested after illegally crossing the US-Mexico border in fiscal 2023, which ended Sept. 30, in addition to an estimated 670,000 “tourists” who evaded authorities — up from nearly 2.4 million in fiscal 2022 and 1.7 million in fiscal 2021. .
Biden stopped construction of Trump’s US-Mexico border wall on his first day as president and in June 2021 ended Trump’s “Stay in Mexico” policy, which required most asylum seekers to await a decision in Mexico.
The border crisis is a liability for Biden facing an expected rematch against Trump. A Pew Research poll released this month found that only 32% of Americans believe Biden can make “smart decisions on immigration policy.”
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
