House GOP Ups Pressure on McCarthy Over Mayorkas

Twenty GOP House members who want to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas dialed up their pressure Tuesday on House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., at a press conference with three former DHS officials, The Hill reported.

"Now that we have the majority in the House of Representatives, I expect our party to pursue impeachment next Congress," said Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., who is running a protest campaign against McCarthy for House speaker. Biggs introduced articles of impeachment against Mayorkas in 2021.

"Secretary Mayorkas has committed high crimes and misdemeanors. His conduct is not incompetent. It is not negligent. It is willful and intentional," Biggs added.

Biggs named areas where said Mayorkas has broken the law, the Washington Examiner reported:

"First, Secretary Mayorkas has failed to maintain operational control of the border as required under the law," he said, quoting from the Secure Fence Act of 2006's definition of operational control as "the prevention of all unlawful entries into the United States, including entries by terrorists, other unlawful aliens, instruments of terrorism, narcotics, and other contraband."

Second, Biggs said, Mayorkas "may have lied to Congress when he testified that he was maintaining operational control of the border.

"Congressman Chip Roy of Texas literally showed him the definition — the one I read to you earlier — and Secretary Mayorkas doubled down that he felt the border was secure. It

McCarthy has been critical of Mayorkas but has said he will not make impeachment of Biden administration officials a political exercise. Biggs was unhappy with that position. He has gathered 32 co-sponsors for his impeachment resolution.

McCarthy traveled to the U.S.-Mexico border in November after he won the nomination for speaker. While there he called on Mayorkas to resign or face Republican probes and a possible impeachment investigation.

But Biggs was not impressed, writing in a Washington Examiner column Tuesday that McCarthy had added "a little thickener to weak sauce — but it's not good enough."

Biggs told reporters McCarthy only made the move "after he knew that he was facing somebody who was going to possibly deny him being speaker."

The former Homeland Security officials in attendance were former acting U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Mark Morgan, former acting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Tom Homan, and former U.S. Border Patrol Chief Rodney Scott