Threatened with impeachment, Mayorkas defends record at border

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas touted his record managing the U.S.-Mexico border and blamed Congress for legislative paralysis Monday, days ahead of the first House impeachment hearing against him.

Mayorkas pushed back against Republican claims that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) under his watch has sat on the sidelines or encouraged migrants to enter the United States illegally.

“After the ending of Title 42 In May of this year through the end of the fiscal year, DHS removed or returned more noncitizens without a basis to remain in the United States than in any other five-month period in the last 10 years,” he said.

“In fact, the majority of all migrants encountered at the southwest border throughout this administration have been removed, returned or expelled. A majority of them.”

On Wednesday, the House Homeland Security Committee will hold a hearing titled “Havoc in the Heartland: How Secretary Mayorkas’ Failed Leadership Has Impacted the States,” promoted by Chairman Mark Green (R-Tenn.) as the beginning of the impeachment process against Mayorkas.

“For almost three years, the American people have demanded an end to the unprecedented crisis at the Southwest border, and they have also rightly called for Congress to hold accountable those responsible,” Green said in a statement. 

“That’s why the House Committee on Homeland Security led a comprehensive investigation into the causes, costs, and consequences of this crisis. Our investigation made clear that this crisis finds its foundation in Secretary Mayorkas’ decision-making and refusal to enforce the laws passed by Congress, and that his failure to fulfill his oath of office demands accountability.”

In November, the House voted to send articles of impeachment against Mayorkas to Green’s committee, slapping down an effort by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) to fast-track the process.

But Republicans have made clear they intend to put further pressure on the DHS head, and some centrists who voted to send the impeachment to committee have indicated they would support a leadership-led effort to go through with impeachment.

Democrats and the administration have pushed back on the allegations made in the now-multiple attempts to impeach Mayorkas, all of which share the core idea that DHS is not implementing immigration laws as passed by Congress.

“Some have accused DHS of not enforcing our nation’s laws. This could not be further from the truth,” Mayorkas said Monday.

“Having begun my public service career as a federal prosecutor for 12 years, ultimately serving as the United States Attorney, there is nothing I take more seriously than our responsibility to uphold the law, and the men and women of DHS are working around the clock to do so.”

The Biden administration and Mayorkas have been under fire over their policy decisions at the border from day one.

Republicans have grown increasingly confident that immigration is their strongest issue against Biden, and have pushed the idea of a chaotic, dangerous border fostered by the alleged incompetence or connivance of officials including Mayorkas.

From the left, the attacks have centered on the administration’s embrace of deterrence as an effective tool to decrease migration to the United States.

“As we all know all too well, the issue of immigration is an issue that is highly politicized. And it is very important that the American public understand the facts, the extraordinary dedication of the Department of Homeland Security’s personnel, all this administration has done,” Mayorkas said. “And it’s very important that they understand that the challenge that we are experiencing is a challenge that is a function of a number of factors.”

According to him, the high number of migrant arrivals at the southwest border boils down to two factors: a global migration phenomenon that’s uniquely acute in the Western Hemisphere, and the United States’s inability to regulate that phenomenon because of an archaic immigration system.

“But within the constraints of a broken immigration system, at a time when the world and this hemisphere in particular is experiencing an unprecedented level of displaced people, we are creating creative solutions to a significant problem that is not unique to us,” he said.

Though Mayorkas was sharply critical of Congress’s inability to modernize the immigration system, he lauded the bipartisan Senate negotiations that since December have sought a consensus on border policy changes.

“The senators, the Republican and Democratic senators that I’ve been privileged to be at the table with, along with my colleagues from the White House, have been working tirelessly to reach a framework to reach a legislative solution that both the Senate and the House can pass and that can transform the manner in which we address the challenges of migration that are so very different than they were 10, 20 and 30 years ago,” he said.

Those negotiations have received their fair share of criticism, especially from the left and groups such as the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, which has not had a seat at the table despite its members’ unique interest in immigration.

Mayorkas also touted the Biden administration’s work with Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador to reduce migration through that country, saying Mexican enforcement had lapsed and is once again blocking some migrants from heading north.

Mayorkas said the increase in migrant arrivals in December “coincides with a time when Mexican enforcement was no longer implemented. The immigration enforcement agency in Mexico was not funded.”

Mexico has upped its immigration enforcement efforts — efforts that in the past have yielded credible accusations of human rights violations — and the number of arrivals dropped precipitously in the first week of January.

Yet Mayorkas said that drop may not be permanent, and may not have happened solely as a result of Mexico’s efforts.

“It is too early to tell whether the significant drop in the number of encounters we have experienced over the past week is a function of the season, the holiday season, or whether it is a function of the fact that the Mexican authorities have resumed their enforcement operations, and it very well may be a combination of both,” he said.