The Mayorkas Impeachment: Too Little, Too Late?
Republicans took control of the House more than a year ago, so why are they only now getting around to impeachment?
We have mixed feelings about the impeachment of Alejandro Mayorkas.
Does he deserve it? Sure. To say that he’s the worst homeland security secretary in our nation’s history is charitable. As for the case, it’s rock-solid. Just ask Tennessee’s Mark Green.
“These articles lay out a clear, compelling, and irrefutable case for Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas’ impeachment,” said Green, who chairs the House Homeland Security Committee. “He has willfully and systemically refused to comply with immigration laws enacted by Congress. He has breached the public trust by knowingly making false statements to Congress and the American people, and obstructing congressional oversight of his department. These facts are beyond dispute, and the results of his lawless behavior have been disastrous for our country.”
Who can argue with Green’s statement? Certainly not us. But Republicans took control of the House more than a year ago. Since then, Customs and Border Protection has logged more than 3.3 million encounters with illegals. December alone saw an all-time record 371,000 encounters. The question is: What on earth took House Republicans so long to begin impeachment hearings? We were calling for Mayorkas’s scalp more than a year ago, and the GOP should’ve been ramping up its impeachment case as soon is it became clear, in early November 2022, that Republicans had taken control of the House. Instead, they dragged their feet. And here we are.
Yes, here we are. This past Saturday night, two New York City cops were essentially curb-stomped by a mob of illegals near Times Square. As the New York Post reports: “The footage shows an NYPD officer and lieutenant initially telling the migrants to move along around 8:30 p.m. Saturday on West 42nd Street in Manhattan — before things quickly get rowdy as a scuffle breaks out between the cops and a suspect who is wrestled to the ground.”
That footage, by the way, is stunning. This wasn’t a case of some rowdy hoodlums getting into a shoving match with the cops. These were illegal immigrants alternately kicking and head-stomping the officers.
🚨WANTED for ASSAULT: on 1/27 at approx. 8:30 PM, individuals kicked & punched police officers in the head & body when officers were effecting an arrest in front of 220 W 42nd Street. The individuals fled on foot towards 7th Ave. Any info? DM or call @nypdtips at 800-577-TIPS. pic.twitter.com/UDusqdbGgf
— NYPD NEWS (@NYPDnews) January 30, 2024
It gets worse. As The Daily Wire reports, “Four illegal immigrants were eventually apprehended and identified,” but “all four were reportedly released without bail after being charged with assault.”
That’ll teach ‘em.
The dereliction of Joe Biden and his homeland security stooge is willful. As our Nate Jackson noted 19 months ago, this is an intentional invasion. As such, it is certainly impeachable.
But, again, it was impeachable a year ago. So why now? If we didn’t know better, we’d say the timing has something to do with electoral politics.
In any case, the House Homeland Security Committee approved a resolution to impeach at around 1 a.m. Wednesday. If the time of the vote was odd, the vote itself was entirely predictable: 18-15, straight down party lines. Speaker Mike Johnson says the resolution will receive a floor vote “as soon as possible.”
Mayorkas didn’t waste any time dismissing the proceedings. “I assure you that your false accusations do not rattle me and do not divert me from the law enforcement and broader public service mission to which I have devoted most of my career and to which I remain devoted,” he wrote in a letter to Green.
The lefties at The New York Times dutifully absolved Mayorkas, weakly suggesting that this was Joe Biden’s fault, but also parroting Biden’s laughable line that the Republicans “refused to provide resources, blocked efforts to update laws and openly defied federal officials charged with maintaining security and order along the 2,000-mile border.”
Got that? The guy who now blames the Republicans is the same guy who during a 2019 Democrat presidential debate invited “all those people who are seeking asylum” to “immediately surge to the border,” and the same guy who immediately upon taking office rescinded all of Donald Trump’s border-control measures, including the inarguably effective Remain in Mexico policy.
The Wall Street Journal editorial board also can’t seem to see the sense of holding government officials accountable. “As much as we share the frustration with the Biden border mess,” it writes, “impeaching Mr. Mayorkas won’t change enforcement policy and is a bad precedent that will open the gates to more cabinet impeachments by both parties.” Translation: Leave him alone. We like the cheap labor.
Finally, we consider constitutional law professor Jonathan Turley, who doesn’t think Republicans have a good case. “I don’t think they have established any of those bases for impeachment,” Turley said, referring to the constitutional threshold of “high crimes and misdemeanors” rather than mere “maladministration,” a standard that the Framers rejected. He added: “The fact is, impeachment is not for being a bad cabinet member or even a bad person. It is a very narrow standard.”
Here we’d point the good professor to the full text of Article II, Section 4, which reads, “The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.”
If willfully refusing to protect one’s borders isn’t treasonous, we don’t know what is.
