Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said that he has no plans to leave his position even as Republicans on Capitol Hill push for his ouster.
Speaking on Sunday, Mayorkas addressed the pressure his critics are putting on him over the crisis at the southern border. He told CNN’s Chris Wallace that he takes calls for his impeachment “seriously” and doesn’t “dismiss it by any measure.” He nonetheless said he considers the situation a disagreement over policy.
“They will not force me out,” he said of the impeachment push at another point in the interview.
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Reps. Andy Biggs (R-AZ) and Pat Fallon (R-TX) introduced articles of impeachment against Mayorkas last month. The congressmen contend that Mayorkas is not enforcing federal immigration laws. Biggs argued that Mayorkas has “violated his oath of office, wreaking havoc on this country, and he must be impeached.”
“Secretary Mayorkas has failed to faithfully uphold his oath and has instead presided over a reckless abandonment of border security and immigration enforcement, [at] the expense of the Constitution and the security of the United States,” the articles of impeachment read.
Since the GOP regained control of the House following last year’s midterm elections, the party has vowed to conduct aggressive oversight over the Biden administration’s border policies. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) called on Mayorkas to resign in November.
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While talk of Mayorkas’s impeachment is growing, the impeachment of Cabinet members is all but unheard of. The only Cabinet member ever impeached was President Ulysses S. Grant’s secretary of war, William Belknap, some 150 years ago. He chose to resign rather than be subjected to what would be a likely conviction by the Senate.
Meanwhile, the Department of Homeland Security has hired a private law firm to work with Mayorkas as House Republicans look toward impeachment.
