House GOP sets Mayorkas impeachment hearing
WASHINGTON – House Republicans are proceeding with impeachment proceedings against Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas in a massive escalation of their attack on Democrats over the migrant crisis at the southern border.
The proceedings will begin Jan. 10, with the
House Homeland Security Committee holding a first impeachment hearing, a committee spokesperson told USA TODAY. Punchbowl News first reported the hearing.
The move comes as more than 60 House Republicans and Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., are in Eagle Pass, Texas, to tour the border and hold a press conference on the migrant crisis.
On the other side of the Capitol, bipartisan talks on a border and immigration deal continue to progress slowly as lawmakers in the Senate seek to tie changes in border policy to foreign aid.
“There is no valid basis to impeach Secretary Mayorkas, as senior members of the House majority have attested, and this extreme impeachment push is a harmful distraction from our critical national security priorities,” Mia Ehrenberg, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, said in a statement.
Mayorkas is involved in the Senate border talks and is advising negotiators on policy changes.
The Department of Homeland Security needs additional resources “now,” Mayorkas said Wednesday morning on CNN.
Mayorkas has pushed for President Joe Biden’s proposed supplemental package that included foreign aid along with changes in border policy, adding he hopes the impeachment proceedings do not hinder the ongoing delicate negotiations.
The top Democrat on the Homeland Security Committee, Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., called the effort to impeach Mayorkas “completely baseless” and “a political stunt without any foundation in the Constitution,” in a statement.
House Republicans have long clamored to impeach Mayorkas, blaming him for the crisis at the southern border. Conservative firebrand Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., tried to force an impeachment vote on Mayorkas last year but a handful of GOP lawmakers blocked her bid, referring it to the Homeland Security Committee that already was investigating Mayorkas.
Greene was poised to force a second vote, but dropped it after saying she received reassurances from Johnson and House Homeland Security Committee Chair Mark Green, R-Tenn., that House Republicans would vote on impeaching Mayorkas in the future.