Mayorkas hearing comes as Republicans launch border investigation, push for impeachment

WASHINGTON – House Republicans on Wednesday morning launched an investigation into Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas over allegations he has not properly managed the southwest border.

Mayorkas has faced sharp criticism from Republicans over his leadership of Department of Homeland Security as migrants attempt to cross into the country from the southern border. He was also condemned for not better preparing for the end of Title 42, a pandemic-era policy that shut down most avenues to asylum for migrants.

Homeland Security Committee Chair Rep. Mark Green, R-Tenn., announced the start of the investigation ahead of a hearing on border security and immigration policy. Green said at a press conference that Mayorkas has been "willfully derelict in his duties" and cast blame on the secretary of Homeland Security for an increase in migrant crossings and the deaths of Americans due to drug overdoses.

But data from the Department of Homeland Security has shown a decline in migrant crossings into the United States. Unlawful entries along the southwest border have decreased by more than 70 percent since the end of Title 42 in May, according to a June 6 Department of Homeland Security press release.

Green said at the press conference that his committee will now begin "a five phase deep dive into the causes and Secretary Mayorkas' orchestration" of what Republicans view as a crisis at the southern border. The investigation could eventually lead to the impeachment of the first cabinet secretary since 1876.

Rep. Clay Higgins (R-LA) indicated during the press conference that he sought to use the investigation in order to remove Mayorkas from office.

"We believe that America will come to concur with our assessment that Secretary Mayorkas has completely failed his nation and should be removed from office through the congressional process, or preferably by his own will," Higgins said.

"We have to stop the arterial bleed at our southern border," Higgins added. "We're losing our country down there."

During the full committee meeting to kickstart the investigation into Mayorkas, ranking member Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Mississippi slammed the hearing as a "sham," in his opening statement.

"Calling a hearing and saying 'case closed' before you've heard any testimony is not legitimate oversight," Thompson said.

Later in the hearing, Thompson said Republicans "have constantly falsely accused Secretary Mayorkas of being derelict in his duty to secure the border," but he noted that border encounters have decreased since the end of Title 42 last month.

"Republicans don't like the Biden administration is returning to a more orderly, humane border and immigration policy after the cruelty and dysfunction of the Trump administration," he said. "And they can't stand that these policies have been effective."

Rep. Seth Magaziner, D-R.I., also accused Republicans of "politicizing" the Department of Homeland Security and launching an investigation into Mayorkas.

"The only dereliction of duty here is House Republicans wasting time on political games instead of focusing on the real problems that we need to tackle to protect the homeland," he said.

Green, the chairman of the committee, also briefly interrupted Magaziner after the Rhode Island Democrat claimed that a "leader of this committee" told attendees at a closed door fundraiser that Republicans would impeach Mayorkas.

"That's not what I said," Green said. "I want to correct the record. I've never used the word impeachment."

During the Wednesday press conference, Green also called on President Joe Biden to pay attention to the Homeland Security Committee's investigation of Mayorkas.

"He can't possibly know of all of these failures of Mayorkas and have not fired him already," Green said.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Mayorkas hearing comes after investigation, calls for impeachment