For the second time this term, Republicans are pursuing an impeachment process with no evidence to justify it. This time, however, they might actually be able to impeach their target: Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, a Biden administration official they’re trying to scapegoat on the issue of immigration.
If a House vote proceeds on Tuesday evening as expected, and if House Republicans stick together, Mayorkas will become the first cabinet official to be impeached in 148 years. The two articles of impeachment he faces accuse Mayorkas of failing to enforce existing immigration laws and obstructing House Republicans’ investigation into Department of Homeland Security (DHS) policies. After the vote, the process will head to the Democrat-led Senate for a trial, which is poised to result in a speedy Mayorkas acquittal, if there is a trial at all.
As DHS secretary, Mayorkas oversees US border enforcement and immigration policies including the asylum process and detention. Because of his role, Republicans see him as an obvious official to blame for their grievances with an influx of crossings at the southern border.
The only problem? Much as is the case with President Joe Biden’s impeachment inquiry, they’ve provided no evidence of any “high crimes and misdemeanors,” the Constitutional threshold that’s historically been used for impeachment. As in Biden’s case, they’ve also failed to scrape together much proof of Mayorkas’s wrongdoing at all.
Additionally, it is Congress — and not Mayorkas — that is at fault for many of the gaps in the US immigration system, since lawmakers must approve appropriations in order to fund new programs or fresh policies that address existing holes. There has been little progress on real reform, however, for years. And while a bipartisan group of senators released an immigration proposal on Sunday, its prospects are looking grim given former President Donald Trump’s opposition to the idea of it….
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