America's Talking - After Hours of Debate, House Committee Advances Mayorkas Impeachment Articles

Episode Date: February 2, 2024

The U.S. House Committee on Homeland Security voted along party lines early Wednesday to advance two articles of impeachment against Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. It did so after over several hours of debate, multiple motions filed, objections, appeals, points of order and motions to table; multiple voice and recorded votes, several recession breaks and even arguments over the breaks, as Democratic committee members continuously tried to delay the final vote. Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/america-in-focus/support Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Greetings and welcome to America in Focus, powered by the Center Square. I'm Dan McAulb, Vice President of News and Content at the Franklin News Foundation, publisher of the Center Square Newswire Service. Joining me again today is the Center Square's Washington, D.C. Bureau Chief, Casey Harper. How are you, Casey? Doing good, Dan. How are you? I am doing well, thank you. We are recording this on Friday, February 2nd.

Casey, the U.S. House Committee investigating the ongoing border crisis and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas's role in it, advanced two articles of impeachment against Mayorcas to the full House this week. The House could vote as early as next week to impeach Mayorkas. If that happens, Mayorcas will be just the second cabinet member in U.S. history and the first and nearly 150 years to be impeached. Why are Republicans in the House, Casey, looking to impeach the Homeland Security Secretary? Yeah, well, because the border crisis,

that has been bubbling beneath the surface of American politics for years and years. During this, Biden administration has reached a boiling point and is boiling over. And so in many ways, you could say this Mayarchist impeachment is a symbolic event, but it's a pretty significant symbolic event. As you said, it's very unusual for a secretary like this to be impeached. Democrats are really hammering this move because they're saying, hey, this isn't actually going to do anything. This is just political theater. But from the Republican perspective, they're saying, you know, we've tried everything else and the Biden administration is not securing the border, regardless of what it says, and regardless of who it blames. And so we're going to take a more extreme measure. We're going to

get rid of Mayorkes. Now, I think Mayorkas in some sense is kind of caught between a rock and a hard place because I have no doubt that Mayorkas is doing exactly what President Joe Biden wants him to do. cabinet secretaries, for the most part, carry out the wishes of the president. And the president has never seemingly been at odds or out of step with Mayorkas when it comes to how they talk about the border, the policies that are implemented. So I think Biden is happy with Mayorkas for all accounts. And he's still here. And Biden hasn't removed him despite the controversy. And Biden could have, you know, maybe as a way to say, hey, I'm taking the border seriously. I'm changing up my DHS secretaries, presidents have done things like that in the past. But Biden has supported Mayorkas,

and that really comes against the backdrop of, you know, as we've reported at the center square.com, about 10 million, more than 10 million illegal immigrants coming into the U.S. since Biden took office. You know, many of them being shipped through either the federal government or Texas Governor Greg Abbott and his busing program, two different cities in the northeast. several Democrat-led cities have declared either emergencies or called this a crisis like New York, like Chicago. It's happening in Massachusetts as well. So what was once kind of a regional issue of American politics has become somewhat bipartisan, has become the focal point of the political conversation and no less in an election year, Dan.

So it's all coming to a head right now. And Mayork is in some senses at the wrong place or the wrong place. time. Yeah, and while Democrats in Congress are calling this a political witch hunt against the Homeland Security Secretary, as you mentioned, Democrats across the country, Chicago, New York, Washington, D.C., Denver, call the situation unsustainable as tens of thousands of migrants who illegally across the border have been shipped, as you mentioned, by Texas Governor Abbott to their so-called sanctuary cities. those sanctuary cities with Democratic mayors can't keep up with it. And they're getting a fraction of the migrants that border states like Texas are seeing,

which have seen millions. But let's dig into the two articles here just for a minute. Casey Article 1, titled Willful and Systemic Refusal to Comply with the Law. It essentially alleges that Mayork has violated his oath, quote, to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic to bear the true faith and allegiance to the same and to well and faithically discharge the duties of his office. In addition, along with those more than 10 million illegal border crosses since Biden took office, you have massive amounts of fentanyl being smuggled into the

country. The fentanyl crisis has been growing over the past a few years. The number of people who have died of fentanyl poisoning or fentanyl overdoses has dramatically increased. The number of known or suspected terrorists apprehended trying to illegally enter the country has significantly grown. We know last fiscal year alone there was more than 750 known or suspected terrorists who were apprehended. That does not include the gotaways, those who successfully enter the country undetected, unapprehended, who we have no idea who they are. or where they are. Certainly there could be terrorists among that group. So that's Article 1. Any thoughts there? Yeah, I mean, I want to, I do want to talk about the Biden's basically response and how he's attacking Republicans in Congress and what kind of what DHS policies are the root of this. And so maybe I can do that quickly because I think it's relevant here to Article 1 because the allegation is that, you know, Mayorkas knows what Congress, what laws Congress has passed and he's purposely not enforcing them, which really comes down.

to how you see this issue. And I think it's been, the waters have been muddied purposely so by, for political reasons. So Biden is attacking Republicans saying, I need you to pass this border bill. I need more money for immigration judges and different things. And Republicans are saying, you're being disingenuous. We've already put the laws on the books. You have more than enough money. And what Biden wants to do is to be able to get some kind of legislation passed and then to say, hey, we passed this bill. We did something. Give us time now that the bill is passed and get that carry them through the election year. And Republicans are hesitant to do that because they feel it's disingenuous. And there's really two reasons why. And they have nothing to do with congressional

funding. One is Biden has almost entirely stopped deporting people, which is a Biden administration policy that's hardly ever talked about. If you don't have some kind of criminal record other than entering the country illegally, it's a very low chance that you're actually going to be deported, right? And the word is out on that. And those coming into the U.S. know that they're very likely not going to be deported, no one's going to come knocking on their door if they don't show up for their court hearings. That's the first administrative change that has nothing to do with congressional funding. Can I jump in here? Can I just jump in here? You've got the huge story out of New York City this week where a number of migrants brutally attacked two New York City police officers

caught on tape. The migrants, some of the attackers were arrested, but they were released without bond. And now there's reports that they're heading out to California. That's one of the things. that many Americans are outraged over with this ongoing border crisis. Sorry, go ahead and continue. Yeah, no, I mean, it's having implications everywhere. It's not just the border states, as you said, it is the cities and everywhere else. You know, the second thing that's going on here that has nothing to do with congressional funding is Biden, through DHS, has essentially changed asylum policies and how people who say they fear they don't want to return to the country are processed. And so under the Biden administration, it's very, very easy to just say, basically,

that you'd be better off in America than you would be in your home country. And therefore, these border agents who used to catch and deter people, you know, and then deport them, they basically now catch you, process you, and release you into the country. And so, Republicans are like, this is not about more border agents. We can get you more border agents, but you've turned those border agents into basically concierges for, for immigrants coming into the U.S. So it's a DHS policy problem, not so much a funding problem. That's the Republican argument.

But so much of that is lost, and you know, that's why you listen to shows like this, programs like this to get to the bottom. But so much of that is lost in all the politicization of this issue. Right. Let me just briefly mention what Article 2 is. Essentially, Article 2 alleges that Mayorkas knowingly made false statements, knowingly obstructed lawful oversight of the Department of Homeland Security by Congress. So those are the two articles.

Casey, in the brief time that we have left, the House could vote on these articles of impeachment next week. Republicans have a slight majority in the House. It's expected that they will impeach Mayorkas, but then it goes to the Senate where Democrats have a slight majority. What do you expect there? Yeah, I don't think they're going to be able to get this through the Senate. I mean, it's not a good look for Biden. It is unifying Republicans. But I think Mayor Marriress isn't going anywhere unless Biden throws them under the bus for political reasons.

And really, you know, that's the where this lands stand. It is 2024. And with this impeachment, Republicans have managed to make 24, at least so far, all about immigration. And that's good news for Trump and bad for Biden politically. Thank you, Casey. We are out of time. Listeners can keep up with this story and all of our coverage at thecentersquare.com. For Casey Harper, I'm Dan McAulip.

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