House Republicans undermined real action on border security and made a mockery of the impeachment process.
The first article of impeachment alleged that Mayorkas “willfully and systemically refused to comply with Federal immigration laws.” It accused him of a “scheme” to release asylum applicants, in defiance of the law’s requirement that such applicants “shall be detained.”
The accusation was comically dishonest. Every time Mayorkas has testified before Congress, he has explained that he doesn’t have enough personnel, equipment, or accommodations to deal with all the migrants he’s supposed to detain. He has pleaded with Republicans to give him what he needs. A few months ago, he helped a bipartisan group of senators craft legislation to solve the problem. But at the behest of Donald Trump—who wanted to preserve chaos at the border because it might get him re-elected to the presidency this fall—House Republican leaders refused to consider the bill, and Senate Republicans killed it. Now they have the gall to blame Mayorkas.
The second article of impeachment alleged that Mayorkas “knowingly made false statements to Congress.” Specifically, the article said he lied by claiming that the border was “secure” and “closed.” These claims by Mayorkas are eye-rollers, but they’re no different from the self-serving overstatements politicians make all the time.
The absurdity of the impeachment was on display last Tuesday, just before House managers formally brought the impeachment articles to the Senate. That morning, the House Homeland Security Committee interrogated Mayorkas about the DHS budget. The committee’s Republicans hurled bogus accusations at him—claiming, for example, that he had instructed immigration officers “not to take prior criminal conduct into account when taking enforcement action.” Mayorkas patiently explained that the accusations were false. His interrogators ignored the corrections and repeated their falsehoods.
There was one moment of candor, however, and it came from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene. She told Mayorkas: “The open border is the Number One issue across America in poll after poll, and that is exactly why this committee impeached you.”
She was right. The impeachment was never about high crimes. It was political theater.