Consider This from NPR - Impeaching Mayorkas: High Crimes and Misdemeanors Or Politics As Usual?

Episode Date: January 30, 2024

Immigration and management of the U.S. Southern Border is always a politically charged issue, but especially at this moment. House republicans are trying to advance articles of impeachment against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. They say he has refused to comply with the law and has breached the trust of the public.Meanwhile President Biden is describing the U.S. immigration system as broken. All this is playing out as a government funding bill is tied to the border and a presidential election is months away.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Well, we want to thank all of you for being here today. There are few political issues that energize Republicans like the southern border of the United States. I want to thank all of my colleagues for joining me here in the epicenter of the crisis that we're having on the border here in Eagle Pass, Texas. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson toured the border with a group of fellow Republicans earlier this month. A record 2.5 million migrants arrived at the border last year. The man Republicans hold responsible? Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. Here was Republican Clay Higgins of Louisiana. You've brought generational trauma upon our country. I believe history will witness your era of service as a transitional time in our country. What was America like before Secretary Mayorkas and what was America like

after him? At a House Homeland Security Committee hearing last April, Higgins attacked Mayorkas' handling of the border. It's stunning that you could sit there and smugly grin as if you've not miserably failed your country. We're done, done, done with your lies to America. There have been lots of fiery moments between Republicans and Mayorkas. Here's Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia asking Mayorkas about the impact of fentanyl coming across the border. How long are you going to continue this outrage, complete outrage, where China is poisoning America's children, poisoning our teenagers, poisoning our young people? How long are you going to let this go on? Congresswoman, let me assure you that we're not letting it go on. We are fighting this.

No, I reclaim my time. You're a liar. You are letting this go on. We'll note that most of the fentanyl coming into the United States is being smuggled in at legal points of entry by American citizens. Nevertheless, Republicans are calling for Mayorkas to be impeached. We're here today not because we want to be, but because we have exhausted all other options. And today, the House Homeland Security Committee is working to advance impeachment proceedings against Mayorkas. Here's Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mark Green of Tennessee. For almost a year, committee Democrats have turned a blind eye to the victims

of the border crisis while berating us for spending what they believed was too much time investigating Secretary Mayorkas' handling of the border. The Republican-led committee accuses Mayorkas of, quote, willful and systemic refusal to comply with the law and, quote, breach of public trust. Democrats call the articles of impeachment against Mayorkas a sham. They say this process is politically motivated. Here's Democratic Congressman Benny Thompson of Mississippi this morning. They don't want progress. They don't want solutions. They want a political issue.

And most of all, they want to please their disgraced former president. Consider this. Last year, more than two million people tried to cross at the U.S. southern border. But does the Homeland Security Secretary's management of the situation amount to high crimes and misdemeanors? From NPR, I'm Ari Shapiro. It's Tuesday, January 30th. It's Consider This from NPR. Immigration and management of the U.S. southern border are always politically charged issues, but especially at this moment. House Republicans have spent the day advancing

articles of impeachment against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. President Biden is threatening to shut the border. He calls the immigration system broken. And a government funding bill is tied to the border. All this is happening in an election year. I talked about this moment with national political correspondent Mara Liason and congressional correspondent Deirdre Walsh. Deirdre, what is the House Republicans' argument for ousting Mayorkas? Well, the GOP impeachment resolution charges him with two counts, willfully ignoring the law and breaching the public's trust. During today's markup, over and over again, Republicans really singled out Mayorkas as the person they say is responsible for the situation at the southwest border.

But hardline conservatives have really been pushing to impeach Mayorkas ever since Republicans took control of the House chamber last January. There's been a split inside the House Republican conference about whether or not they had sufficient evidence to move forward. But the House Speaker Mike Johnson, who's been dealing with some strong criticism from some of his members on the right, has decided to go ahead with this impeachment process. Some of those moderates from Midwest districts have been hesitant about impeaching Mayorkas, but now they say they're ready to go ahead and do that. They say the border security issue is really a top issue they're hearing about from their constituents back home. And what do Democrats say? Many of them seem to agree that the situation on the border is serious. How are they viewing the accusations against Mayorkas? They do. And they're arguing that Republicans should work across the aisle to

deal with the situation that they've been arguing is a crisis. In terms of the impeachment process, they're really saying it's a sham. And the top Democrat on the committee, Benny Thompson, is saying it's really all about scoring political points. They pointed out during today's session that no official has ever been impeached for policy differences. And this process is really about using the issue of the border to talk about the 2024 election. Well, let's bring a national political correspondent, Mara Eliason, to talk about the broader political fight here. Hi, Mara.

Hi, Ari. We've been discussing this proposed border bill for weeks, and the White House has been part of these talks. But over the weekend, President Biden took a surprising position. Here he is at a campaign event in South Carolina. That bill with the law today, I'd shut down the border right now and fix it quickly. A bipartisan bill would be good for America and help fix our broken immigration system and allow speedy access for those who deserve to be here. And Congress needs to get it done. Morrow, what does he mean by shut the border? And why is he making what sounds like a shift in tone?

Yes, it's certainly a shift in tone. And some immigration advocacy groups and progressives aren't so happy about that. What he means is that the bill would allow him, give the president the power to, if asylum seekers, illegal crossers got above a certain number in a week or a day, he could stop taking applications for some period of time. But what's really happening here is that Biden has come to understand just how bad the politics of immigration are for Democrats. Voters blame him and his party. They consider the border a federal presidential responsibility. It's national security. They want the border under control, and it isn't. But what really shifted things was when the Republican governors of Texas and

Florida started busing migrants north to Democratic cities and states. Remember, they sent them to Martha's Vineyard, but they also sent them to New York and Illinois. And Governor J.B. Pritzker, New York City Mayor Eric Adams said they cannot handle this amount of asylum seekers. So they've been pressuring the White House, too. So now Biden's taking a tougher line, saying he would sign a bill to put limits on the number of asylum seekers. He also wants something else because the bill was paired with aid to Ukraine. And Republicans said to him, this is the price you have to pay if you want aid to stop Putin's invasion. You're going to have to agree to a very conservative border bill. Biden said, OK, I will. And then kind of like Lucy with the football in Peanuts, House Republicans said, well, actually, there's no compromise you can agree to that would allow us to pass a border bill and give you some political credit.

And some of that may have to do with the opposition that's been coming from former President Trump, who is putting pressure on Republicans to reject a bill, even though we haven't actually seen the text or the language. Here's Trump at a rally over the weekend. As the leader of our party, there is zero chance I will support this horrible open borders betrayal of America. It's not going to happen. Back to you, Deirdre. Does Trump's opposition to a deal mean Republicans in Congress would not sign on to any agreement? I mean, some Senate Republicans are ready to be part of an agreement. But I think the vast majority of Republicans on the Hill are really reluctant to go to be cross with the head of their party. That's Donald Trump right now. I mean, what they're talking about in this potential bipartisan deal is pretty conservative. These are kinds of proposals that some of them were in place under former President Trump. But conservatives are not ready to cross Trump.

And I think right now, even those who say in the time of divided government, like Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, this isn't it's much harder to get something like this done when Trump opposes it. And the House Speaker Mike Johnson has already called this a non-starter and he's consulting with former President Trump. So, Mara, why would Senate Democrats agree to work on a bill that the progressive base has real problems with, that Deirdre describes as pretty conservative? are trailing Republicans on which party could help with immigration by like 30 points. And to show how far Senate Democrats have moved in the past, they've always insisted that any big deal on immigration includes some protection for the dreamers, those people who were brought to the country as very young children undocumented. And there's nothing about the dreamers in this bill. And also, they have a big incentive. They want aid for Ukraine. They want to stop Putin from taking over Ukraine. And I think if this bill does die, you're going to start to hear Democrats saying that a vote against this bill is a vote to help Putin.

It would be a huge defeat for NATO. They see the Ukrainian war as a proxy war between NATO and Russia. And they're going to have to find a different way to get aid to Ukraine if this dies. That's national political correspondent Mara Liason and congressional correspondent Deirdre Walsh. This episode was produced by Brianna Scott and Kai McNamee. It was edited by Roberta Rampton, Kelsey Snell, Justine Kennan, and Courtney Dornay. Our executive producer is Sammy Yenigan. It's Consider This from NPR. I'm Ari Shapiro.