Secretary Mayorkas Has Failed to Uphold His Office

Floor Speech

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Mr. LaLOTA. Mr. Speaker, Americans have had enough.

I rise today to call upon the House of Representatives to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and for the Senate to convict and remove him from the office he has failed to uphold.

Since being sworn in 3 years ago, Secretary Mayorkas has neglected his duty to secure the border; he has abused his power to exercise proper discretion over America's immigration process by refusing to enforce Federal laws, and he has breached the public trust and put the safety of the American people at risk.

Secretary Mayorkas is the worst Cabinet-level official in our Nation's proud history, and he has subverted our Nation's laws so many times. With respect to his impeachment and removal, I want to focus on two main points: the reassigning of Border Patrol agents away from the border, and the lack of vetting of migrants paroled into our interior.

First, Secretary Mayorkas continues to require Border Patrol agents be taken off of the border and, instead, sit behind a desk at migrant processing centers to process more and more dubious asylum claims and facilitate migrants' parole into our Nation's interior.

This is an abuse of power by the Secretary to exercise proper discretion over our Nation's immigration process. The diversion of border agents away from the border leaves the already mostly unsecured border even more vulnerable to cartels looking to illegally traffic people and narcotics, including fentanyl.

Fentanyl has been coming through legal and illegal border crossings, overwhelming our law enforcement. The open and agentless border can be tied to the death of the 73,000 Americans who were poisoned by fentanyl in 2022 alone. In redirecting personnel away from the border, leaving it wide open for tens of miles in many places, Secretary Mayorkas has neglected his duty to secure America's southern border and to keep our communities safe.

Second, Mr. Speaker, Secretary Mayorkas' scheme of paroling hundreds of thousands of migrants into the United States who have not and cannot be properly vetted undermines our national security efforts to keep America safe in a post-9/11 world.

In just 2 years in office, Secretary Mayorkas paroled and allowed 541,000 migrants to enter the United States through immigration parole authority, which gives Federal officials the power to authorize the entry of foreigners who lack visas. Moreover, while this number on its own is objectionable, the impeachmentworthy part is Secretary Mayorkas has allowed these individuals into our communities without a proper understanding of their criminal backgrounds or national security intentions.

According to the not-so-conservative New York Times, more than 24,000 Chinese citizens illegally crossed into the United States in a 1-year time period under Secretary Mayorkas. Mayorkas then paroled a large fraction of them into the United States without any proper vetting whatsoever.

This has brought us to this week, where the Homeland Security Committee opened impeachment proceedings against Secretary Mayorkas. This was not an easy decision, but it is necessary for the well-being of our Nation.

Mr. Speaker, House Republicans' calls for the Secretary's impeachment and removal from office comes after exhausting all other efforts.

In May of last year, the House took action and passed H.R. 2, the Secure the Border Act, which, among other things, would counter Secretary Mayorkas' alternative immigration scheme by reinstating the remain in Mexico policy and requiring the construction of more physical barriers at the border. Yet, this bill languishes on Senator Schumer's desk.

Despite the inaction from our Senate counterparts, we House Republicans have hosted multiple public hearings to show the American people the failures of Secretary Mayorkas' alternative immigration process with the hope that he would change course. These hearings have been complemented by numerous trips to the southern border to allow Members of this Chamber to hear directly from border communities, local officials, law enforcement, and families harmed by his crisis. House Republicans understand Americans want a more secure border, as is demonstrated by the staggering 68 percent disapproval rating on the President's handling of immigration.

Mr. Speaker, to summarize, Secretary Mayorkas has, one, neglected his duty to secure the border; two, abused his power to exercise proper discretion over America's immigration process; and, three, breached the public trust.

Secretary Mayorkas is intentionally circumventing the immigration and border security laws passed by multiple Congresses and signed by previous Presidents of both parties, and I believe he holds partial responsibility for thousands of our children dying from fentanyl poisoning. The majority of Americans want accountability.

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