(The Center Square) — Committee on Homeland Security Chair Clay Higgins, R-LA., has introduced articles of impeachment against Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas for his failure to secure the southern border.
The move came after The Committee on Homeland Security examined the DHS Tuesday for their perceived failure to prepare for the termination of Title 42, a COVID-era policy that made it harder for illegal immigrants to make it into the U.S.
Higgins said that impeachment “should require clear evidence of intentional, repeated unconstitutional or illegal actions that bring measurable injury to our Republic.”
“Secretary Mayorkas has long ago crossed that threshold,” Higgins said at the hearing.
Higgins argued Mayorkas has deliberately allowed the border situation to “disintegrate” and ceded control of the region to Mexican drug cartels.
“His arrogant disregard for the security and sanctity of the American people has been shocking to behold,” Higgins said. “I think that in my 62 years, I’ve never met a more pompous, insidious man. I prepared the foundational posit of these articles long ago, yet I’ve been prayerful that impeachment might not be required. I’ve given him fair warning to resign his position. Now, he shall reap what he hath sown.”
During the hearing, the Assistant Secretary for Border and Immigration Policy, Blas Nunez-Neto, argued that illegal immigration has decreased by 70% since the termination of Title 42 in May. Higgins cited this was because the Biden Administration has “redefined what an illegal entry is.”
Higgins clarified that “the federal immigration laws that have been established by Congress have been essentially replaced by immigration policy that legalizes illegal entry into our country.”
Nunez-Neto argued that assistance from Congress was necessary to increase border security, a statement that Rep. August Pfluger, R-Texas, “took great offense to,” arguing that Congress had recently passed “the most comprehensive border security package in the history of Congress,” referencing the Border Security for America Act of 2021.
Rep. Eli Crane, R-Ariz., vigorously questioned Nunez-Neto during the hearing concerning the recent $2 million in fentanyl found during a traffic stop along the Arizona border and the fentanyl crisis on the border in general.
Nunez-Neto responded by citing that 90% of fentanyl caught was at U.S. ports rather than the southern border, to which Crane emphasized that those were the caught cases and did not account for successful smuggling of fentanyl across the border.
The hearing concluded with the promise to hold another hearing addressing the fentanyl crisis and a promise for continued discussion about the DHS’s handling of the southern border, which took place on Wednesday.
