America's Talking - House Republicans Have the Votes to Impeach Mayorkas, Green Says

Episode Date: January 21, 2024

House Republicans have the votes to impeach Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, U.S. Rep. Mark Green, MD, R-Tenn., said Thursday. Green, who chairs the House Committee on Homeland Security, said all 18 Republican committee members support impeaching him. Three articles of impeachment have been filed against Mayorkas alleging he is derelict in duty, violating laws established by Congress, and creating a national security threat. 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.

Hello and welcome to America in Focus, powered by the Center Square. I am Dan McAulip 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 things, Casey? Things are good, Dan. How are you? Things are going well for me, Casey. Thank you. Another busy week in Washington, D.C.

First, let me say this is we are recording this on Friday, January 19th. Casey, the U.S. House Committee, Homeland Security Committee, has been holding hearings in recent weeks, looking at whether or not they're going to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. And the chairman of that committee, Mark Green, said after yesterday's hearing, that they have enough Republican votes to impeach the secretary over the border crisis. Tell us what you know. Yeah, I mean, this has been an issue that has been brewing for years, really even before Biden took office, but is accelerated since Biden took office. Bethany Blankley at the Center Square.com has had some great reporting. And among that reporting has been showing that under Mayorkas's tenure since Biden took office, we've had about 10 million illegal immigrants coming to the country, Dan, which is. Yeah, more than. Which is for perspective, if you haven't been following this issue, that is an extremely high number for two years. Of course, that's more than the population of New York City, the largest city in the country, right, in two years, the whole population of that city. And it's a population of more than, you know, a couple dozen states. It'll least, right? More than 40 states, actually, yeah. Forty states, yeah. So, I mean, this is not a small number and it's in a very short period of time. The issue was already kind of a powder keg before this, but they just huge infusion under Biden, under Mayorkas has taken this to a new level. I mean, the numbers are there. There's several different facets to this.

Dan, I mean, there's the crime element. We know for a fact that there are MS-13 and other gang members who have been led into the country, and there was some congressional testimony this week we can get into about that. We have the fentanyl issue, which is the cartels are bringing fentanyl across the border at an incredible rate. It's extremely deadly drug. Many Americans have been killed by it who weren't even wanting to take fentanyl, even police officers who have handled it, you know, have been hurt or killed. You know, there's the economic impact of the migrants as well as the taxpayer imping. We have mayors of even liberal or left-leaning cities who are complaining about the burden of migrants like New York City or Chicago where you are, Dan. And so there's a lot of facets going on here. And then there's a terrorism angle. We know for a fact that some of these migrants who are coming across the border are on the terror watch list or connected to terrorists. And so we start stirring all together. It gets complicated. There's been a lot of hearings, a lot of reports.

And it's culminating in this Mayorkas impeachment, which they say they have the votes. we'll see. I don't think this impeachment is really going to solve the problem, but it's a way for House Republicans to unify and really put a slap in the face to Biden to say, you really need to do something about this. Yeah, so I guess just to offer some clarity to the process. If you compare like the impeachment process to a criminal case, an impeachment is like a charge. There would be enough evidence according to House Republicans to charge Mayorkas or impeach him. But that's not the the final word on the matter, if the House, which Republicans have a slight majority in, if they were to impeach Mayorkas, which all indications are that they will, then it would go to the Senate,

where Democrats have a slight majority. The Senate essentially would put Mayarchus on trial, and the likelihood that they convict him, which would mean removing him from office, it's just not likely at all. Democrats have said, Democrats in Congress have said that they think this is just another political move by by Republicans. But then you've got all the evidence of what the border situation since Biden took office, how it's impacted the country. I'm going to do a brief plug programming note here. We relaunched a new podcast at americastalking.com. You can also find it on your favorite podcast insights called America's Talking, where a number of the center square journalists talked about how the border crisis is impacted the entire country. It's not just

at the border states, of course. New York City, Chicago, Washington, D.C., Denver. Major cities across the country are receiving a number of these migrants, and it's having a huge impact on those communities. Democratic mayors in those cities have declared states of emergency, disaster declarations, things like that. They're begging the federal government for more money to help them deal with this migrant crisis. So you also mention crime, fentanyl. human trafficking. Many of these migrants who are crossing the border are indebted to the Mexican drug cartels, and they have to come here and then pay the cartels off. So this is a nationwide issue. Casey, final word on the topic. Yeah, I mean, I think you said a lot, and we've said a lot

about all the implications. I mean, in some sense, you could go on for days about it. I think if we want to take a finish looking forward, which is what are the political implications, if this Mayarchist impeachment doesn't actually lead to a conviction, you know, what could be the political complications? Well, I think it could force a tough response from the Senate and from some moderate senators. And I think in the presidential election, it could have an impact because the Biden campaign wants to make this election about abortion rights and about how Trump is in their mind a threat to democracy. And you've seen that over and over again. They wanted to be about, you know, race, about women's rights, about Trump being a threat to democracy. On the Republican side,

side. They would love to have this be an election about the border, about the economy, right, and about Biden's foreign policy failings possibly as well. And so the more that they can have with good reason, this border issue and the border story at the top of the headlines, at the top of cable news going into an election year, that's going to be a win for Trump and down-ballot Republicans. Yeah, as we pointed out on the America's talking podcast that we recorded earlier this week, specifically about the border crisis, even in Iowa. You wouldn't think of Iowa, you know, middle of the country, voters who went to the polls during the caucuses named the border crisis is among their top issues. We talked about that a little bit on America's Talking. Again,

I'll shameless plug for another one of our podcast. But Casey, we are out of time. Listeners can keep up with this story and more at the CenterSquare.com or any of our podcast in America's Talking.com or Casey Harper. I'm Dan McAulb. Please subscribe. Thank you for listening. your reviews help other listeners find our show. Please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen.