Biggs files articles of impeachment against Homeland’s Mayorkas
Cites ‘high crimes and misdemeanors’
WASHINGTON − Rep. Andy Biggs filed a new resolution Wednesday to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas for “high crimes and misdemeanors.”
Biggs, R-Ariz., was joined at a Capitol Hill news conference by about 15 fellow House members, including co-sponsors Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., and Rep. Eli Crane, R-Ariz.
This is not the first time that Biggs has introduced articles of impeachment against Mayorkas. He became the first House member to do so in August 2021, arguing that the way the secretary has handled the situation at the U.S.-Mexico border amounts to a “dereliction of duty.” This time, Republicans are in control of the House of Representatives.
Mayorkas deserves to be removed from office because he’s “a public official who’s abused and violated the public trust and constitutes a danger that we can’t wait till the next election to remove,” Biggs said Wednesday.
Mayorkas “started immediately emasculating the very, very strong policies of the previous (Trump) administration,” Biggs said.
Biggs listed as examples Mayorkas’ opposition to continue building the border fence, which had been a priority of former President Donald Trump, and opposition to keeping the Trump administration’s “Remain in Mexico” program. Biggs also criticized Mayorkas for slowing down Title 42, a pandemic-era border health rule that allows the government to quickly deport people here illegally because of the COVID-19 health emergency.
Homeland Security officials did not immediately respond to The Arizona Republic’s request for comment, but Mayorkas on Tuesday told MSNBC that the U.S. immigration system “has been terribly broken and outdated for decades” and needs to be fixed.
“In the meantime, within a broken system, we are doing everything that we can to increase its efficiency, to provide humanitarian relief when the law permits, and to also deliver an enforcement consequence when the law dictates,” Mayorkas said on MSNBC. “That is exactly what we are doing. And as far as I am concerned, I will continue to do that with tremendous pride in the people with whom I work.”
President Joe Biden did not extend Title 42 for unaccompanied minors but has argued in court that it is necessary to deport families to prevent overwhelming facilities, which lack space and could endanger public health. In addition, while Biden signed an executive order on his first day in office that would prevent additional public spending on the border wall for new projects, he has continued existing projects and filled in gaps in the wall in Arizona.
Biggs said one of the first signs of a country’s decline is when its boundaries start to erode.
“And if you study history, you’ll understand very clearly that when disillusion of great nations begins to occur, one of the first things to go is your geographical integrity; your boundaries, your borders, are erased. And our borders have been erased by Secretary Mayorkas,” Biggs said.
Crane ridiculed as a “joke” the notion that Mayorkas and other members of the Biden administration have “operational control” of the southern border.
“I stand in support of this resolution to impeach Secretary Mayorkas because the American people deserve better. That is why I was sent here,” Crane said. “I never wanted to be a politician. Never wanted to come live in this town. I got tired of watching it.”
Other Arizona co-sponsors of the impeachment resolution who were not present at the news conference include Republican Reps. Paul Gosar and Debbie Lesko.