Remarks - Panel on the Case for Impeachment of Secretary Mayorkas

The last twenty-four months have been catastrophic for our country—most notably the humanitarian crisis at our Southern border. Two years ago, thanks to the ‘America First’ immigration policies of the Trump Administration, we had the most secure border in our Nation’s history. Those of us who served at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) implemented across-the-board policies to deter illegal immigration, disrupt the cartels, and enforce the Rule of Law. We succeed by listening to—and empowering—Border Patrol agents to give them the tools they needed to secure the border.

But when the Biden Administration took office in January 2021, all this hard work was undone. The successful Trump-era policies, including ‘Remain in Mexico’ and the Asylum Cooperative Agreements, were terminated, there was a 100-day deportation freeze, and no introduction of new policies to deter illegal immigration.

Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas is the architect of this destruction.

As the first administration of either political party to openly refuse to enforce our immigration laws, the drug cartels and human smugglers found a complicit partner to fuel their heinous business of trafficking migrants and flooding American communities with fentanyl, which is now the number one cause of death of Americans aged 18-45. Secretary Mayorkas has overseen the two worst years of border apprehensions ever recorded—over 4 million illegal aliens, not counting “gotaways”—and is responsible for the 6 highest individual months ever recorded, and 8 of the 10 highest. Because of Secretary Mayorkas, the cartels are now generating $13 billion a year—up from $50 million not that long ago.

After 9/11, DHS was created to secure the homeland and protect our Nation’s citizens. Yet the actions of Secretary Mayorkas have done the opposite, eroding our institutions and diminishing the Rule of Law. He has violated his oath of office, lied to Congress, and jeopardized the safety and well-being of the American people. Make no mistake: Secretary Mayorkas is doing this deliberately.

By no stretch of the imagination is he new to Homeland Security – from 2009-2013, he served as the Director of USCIS, and then as Deputy Secretary of DHS from 2013-2016 under the Obama Administration. He is directly aware of the consequences of record-setting levels of illegal immigration and the damage his policies cause.

Secretary Mayorkas is acutely aware that the illegal aliens apprehended at the border are economic migrants exploiting the asylum system as a means of being released into the country. He knows that only around 15% actually qualify for humanitarian relief yet he mischaracterizes them as “asylum seekers”—a term that has no legal meaning under U.S. immigration law.

Instead of implementing a strategy to discourage this asylum fraud, Secretary Mayorkas continues to focus on processing as many illegal aliens into American communities as possible. What he calls “safe, orderly, and humane” is actually dangerous, corrupt, and inhumane.

Secretary Mayorkas’s latest smoke-and-mirror scheme is to abuse the narrow parole authority to hide the visuals of the chaos unfolding at the border. This is not a “legal” new pathway but a diversion of illegal aliens from between ports-of-entry to the ports-of-entry.

Our great country cannot handle another two years of this devastating border crisis. The American people deserve far better leadership than what Secretary Mayorkas has demonstrated in the past twenty-four months.

He’s not the right man for the job and he needs to go.