The Daily Signal - Rep. Mark Green: What's Next After House Impeached Mayorkas

Episode Date: February 15, 2024

The House on Tuesday voted to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, but the Democrat-controlled Senate is not expected to vote to remove him from office.  “There isn't a whole lot of power we have,” Rep. Mark Green, R-Tenn., chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, said of House members’ ability to push the Senate to hold a trial to consider ousting the homeland security chief.  With the two articles of impeachment now in the hands of the Senate, Green explained, Senate Majority Leader “Chuck Schumer and his guys can … either not hear it at all, they can have us come over and be referred to a committee and it's heard then in a committee and dies in a committee, or they can have us present to the entire Senate.”  Green and his colleagues who backed the impeachment are “going to get loud,” the Tennessee lawmaker said. “We're going to get really loud. They're going to pay for it if they don't do something,” Green said of the Senate, “because the American people are with us on this.”  Green joins “The Daily Signal Podcast” to discuss what the House Homeland Security Committee uncovered during its nearly yearlong investigation into Mayorkas that culminated in the secretary's impeachment.  Enjoy the show! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to the Daily Signal podcast for Thursday, February 15th. I'm Virginia Allen. On Tuesday night, the House on its second try impeached Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. After a nearly year-long investigation into Mayorkas and its handling of the situation at the southern border, Republicans were able with just by one vote to impeach Mayorkas. Well, today, the member of Congress who served. spearheaded that investigation into Mayorkas and his impeachment, Congressman Mark Green, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, joins us to explain the investigation, what was uncovered, and ultimately the culmination of the impeachment of Mayorkas.

Congressman Green also breaks down the current situation on America's southern border and the likelihood that we're going to see any real progress of the border crisis being brought under control within the coming months. Stay tuned for our conversation after this. As conservatives, sometimes it feels like we're constantly on defense against bad ideas. Bad philosophy, revisionist history, junk science, and divisive politics. But here's something I've come to understand. When faced with bad ideas, it's not enough to just defend.

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your podcast. The chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee joins us now. Congressman Mark Green, welcome to the show. Thank you for being with us. Yeah, thanks for having me on and really appreciate what you guys do, helping us get the message out there. Well, this is critical. The Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas was impeached in the House on Tuesday night. This is historic. You wrote in the Wall Street Journal that there were two primary grounds that justified Mayorkas's impeachment. Can you explain what those two grounds are? Yeah, sure. And we corresponded with two articles of impeachment, and Article 1 essentially said that he had willfully and systematically defied, subverted, you know, ignored the laws passed by Congress. We very, very interestingly, in the immigration law, direct the secretary to detain everybody who comes across. The language is very, very interestingly, in the immigration law, direct the secretary to detain everybody who comes across.

the language is very clear, shall detain, parole. There are some very specific instructions that limit automatic parole into the country. He's defied all of those laws. In fact, built policies that do just the opposite of what the law says. And so that's the first one. And then the second one is the breach of trust. And that's where, you know, coming before Congress and lying directly to Congress under oath multiple, multiple times to the Senate, to the House.

And then, of course, lying to the American people. He's cast this insane idea that the border is secure. And it is absolutely not secure. But they're trying to sort of do smoke and mirrors throughout this whole tenure so they can continue on with their immigration policy, the one that they wanted to implement that's not written to the law. They basically abused their position to implement their own, version of immigration law, what they think it ought to be, not what was passed. And so they lied

about border security in order to cover that up. And so those were the two articles and the two primary accusations against him, his high crimes and misdemeanors. And the drafting of those articles, and of course then the impeachment of All 100, Mayorkas on Tuesday night, that came after nearly a year-long investigation into Mayorkas that you led, was spearheaded in the House Homeland Security Committee. This was a five-phase-pronged investigation. What exactly were you looking for in that year-long investigation, almost your long investigation? Yeah, sure. So we first looked at basically his dereliction of duty and were there actual crimes or laws that were subverted, et cetera. And generally in that phase, we talked a little

bit about the impact, but more in the other phases. Phase two was how the policies at the border have facilitated cartel crime throughout the country. Phase three was the human cost, and that's where we talk about, you know, we brought in the mothers of young people who died of fentanyl and human trafficker or a smuggler is racing away from the cops and kills someone because they're speeding, that kind of thing. And we also looked at the human cost on our border. patrol folks. Their suicide rates are astronomical, and their divorce rates are just horrific. The next phase after human cost was the financial cost, and that's where we looked at, you know, uncompensated care for emergency departments, jail, incarcerations in county jails,

DUI, all the various financial costs of having this open border, $450 billion of it each year. And the last phase was waste, fraud, and abuse. And we found a lot of waste. And we found implications of just blatant fraud, but we're still looking for the actual fire. We found the smoke. We're still looking for the fire. In the investigation, I'm sure there's many things that you expected to uncover, but probably some that were pretty surprising.

What stands out to you as you think back on the hearings, on the testimonies that you heard, on diving into resources and documents and leading this investigation, what strikes you as maybe most surprising or fascinating? I think the most fascinating thing is just his inability to tell the truth. You know, we kind of knew as we dug into the numbers and heard the stories, we could predict what that was going to be. What's shocking is, Mayarchus just looks at you and tells you a bald-faced lie and, you know, doesn't seem to bat an eye.

I've never seen someone who could under oath do that like him. It's really honestly shocking. Are you specifically talking about the situation regarding the definition of operational control of the southern border? Or are you thinking of other instances? Well, clearly saying the border is secure is a lie. But you're right. The one we can really pin him on is where Chip Roy reads the definition to him. And he says, yes, we have that, which obviously doesn't.

So then you go, well, is he ignorant? And no, he's not because later in testimony to the Senate, he said, no one's ever had control by that definition. We use our own internal definition. He admitted, basically, lying to Chip Roy under oath. Do we know how many illegal aliens have not only entered across the U.S. border under Mayorkas's tenure as DHS secretary, but have been actually paroled into the U.S. and are now living in communities across the nation. Do we have that number? We do it, I think, and I'm probably going to get myself in trouble, you know, without having the statistic right handy. But I think it's around three million that have gotten parole.

Okay. Okay. Wow. Now, in regards to the vote on Tuesday night, this was, of course, the second vote, the first one was held a week ago, and then it was brought back again before the House and voted on on the House floor Tuesday night and passed this time. There were three House Republicans both times that chose to vote with Democrats against impeachment representatives Mike Gallagher, Wisconsin, Ken Buck of Colorado, and Tom McClintock of California. And they said that one of the reasons why they voted no against impeaching Mayorkas is that Mayorkas is simply enforcing the policies of the Biden administration of President Biden and that Mayorkas shouldn't be held accountable for Biden's border policies. What's your response to that? Well, it's very interesting again. You know,

the U.S. Code that formed, so a law passed by Congress that formed the Department of Homeland Security charged the secretary to secure the border. And so the person who is responsible by law is not the president, interestingly enough. It is the Secretary of Homeland Security. And when he took that job and raised his hand and took that oath, he assumed those duties, and he has failed those duties. Congressman, claims have been made that the impeachment of Mayorkas is politically motivated. Was there any political motivation in this? Absolutely not. I mean, I hated doing this. I mean, we did it because it had to be done. But if he were a Republican, I would do the same thing. We cannot have a cabinet secretary that picks and chooses which laws they want to in 12.

force. And it was even if you go back to Iran-Contra, when the Democrats were investigating, they wrote a report and their report said, basically, that the executive branch doesn't get to choose the ones they want to enforce. So the Democrats know the right answer here. They're just voting their ideology and not their conscience. Well, now that the House has impeached Mayorkas, it goes to the Senate where the Senate has the opportunity to hold a trial, but of course, Democrats control the Senate. So what will you? What will House leadership do in order to push the Senate towards actually holding a trial rather than just tabling this matter? There isn't a whole lot of power we have once it's walked over to the Senate. Chuck Schumer

and his guys can make the decision on disposing of it. They can either not hear it at all. They can have us come over and be referred to a committee and it's heard then in a committee and dies in a committee, or they can, you know, have us present to the entire Senate. That's the uniqueness of impeaching a secretary, someone other than the president. And so we're really, we're going to get loud. We're going to get really loud. They're going to pay for it if they don't do something because the American people are with us on this. Knowing that the Senate is unlikely to take action or they're at least unlikely to remove

Mayorkis, given Democrats control, you know, the question has been raised, well, why did the House take so much time on this and feel the need to impeach Mayorkas, knowing that ultimately he was going to remain as DHS secretary? What do you say to that? Well, my response to that is, you know, just because somebody else isn't going to do their job doesn't mean you don't do your job, your duty, so to speak. You know, I went to West Point, So that duty on our country is sort of imprinted in my brain. It is my duty to impeach this rogue cabinet secretary. The Senate fails to do their duty.

I mean, you know, I hate that and regret it. But it's not my decision to make. It's the Senate. So that's unfortunate, but that is the way the Constitution is written. You mentioned just a moment ago that this is an issue that's really on the minds of Americans. We know that border crisis is a month. the top issues that Americans are thinking about right now. It's really become front and center, I think, in the minds of people across the country, no matter where they live. And I've been fascinated

when I've taken trips down to Texas, and I'm sure you've experienced the same thing, that if you visit the communities along the border, this isn't a red or blue issue for them. It's just sort of a fact of life that they're dealing with, and they want answers. So given that, why can't Democrats and Republicans in Congress seem to find any common ground on addressing the border crisis? Well, it's simple. We have a very thin margin in the House. Our members tend to vote their districts. Their members in the House vote the ideology of the Democrat Party. So they don't vote their district. I've had many of them tell me that America should have been fired years ago. So it's very interesting to hear them say that and then turn around and vote not to impeach him. But that's the

general challenge in today's Congress. Okay. That's fascinating. So we have to look at kind of the difference between what has been proposed. And of course, back in May of last year, the House passed the Border Security bill known as HR2. And then we just saw this month that the Senate rolled out what they really advocated for or called, touted as a bipartisan bill that included funding and and measures for the border, but also Ukraine and Israel. And that Senate bill didn't even make it through the Senate. And of course, we know that House Speaker Mike Johnson said that it would not be taken up in the House. What are the key differences?

You know, for folks looking at the outside and trying to judge between, all right, well, the House says that they have this border security bill and the Senate is saying that they have this one. and right now we've seen a lot of criticism of Republicans from Democrats saying, well, we presented this border bill in the Senate and it was shot down immediately. What are the key differences between what House Republicans proposed in HR2 last year and what was just proposed in the Senate bill? I think the biggest frustration for us in the House on that Senate bill is the codification of the catch and release policies that, America's is doing now. And then the $5,000 a day, which would be $1.8 million, and you multiply that times $15,000 to $20,000, and that's how much we'll be giving to the drug cartels or the drug cartels will be making anyway, and we're practically facilitating it by that bill. So it was not a serious

attempt at border security, and H.R. 2 was. And why do you think the Senate hasn't even considered HR 2? I don't know. I can't say they could amend it in committee and send it back to us for conference committee. I think they just, they got offended that it's real border security and they don't want border security over there. Chuck Schumer does not want border security. Given the differences of opinion that are held between the political left and the political right in Congress on border issues, House Speaker Mike Johnson has encouraged President Biden to take executive action and secure the border. Do you think that that might happen, that President Biden might recognize, like, all right, there can't be a path forward at least immediately in Congress on this issue. So I'm going to

step up and do something. Is that likely? That question is a little bit more complex. You know, I think I understood you to say, is it likely that they're actually going to turn around and do border security now? What I think they're doing is smoke and mirrors. I think they have a vision for how immigration should go, and they're abusing their position to make that happen, to flood the United States with people. So I don't see them doing anything serious at all. What they're saying now is they talk about, you know, Biden said the other day that the war was open since, I think he said back when he was in the Senate, so more than a decade, something like that. That's just smoke and mirrors. They're trying to actually steal the narrative, do just the opposite, but steal the narrative and say

Republicans aren't for border security, and that's just simply a lie. So the bill sits there. Schumer could move it tomorrow. Heck, there are a number of provisions in the law right now that the president could execute under an emergency that allow him to close the border. So they don't want border security. They want their version of an immigration plan that couldn't pass the house. Given that, is there any chance of us seeing any change within the next five, six months down at the border. Tragically, I don't have a whole lot of hope. I really appreciate the state governors that have stepped up and sent, you know, National Guardsmen over to assist Texas, assist Arizona governors. I mean, that is our best hope right now. And unfortunately, it's just not enough.

Yeah. Congressman Mark Green, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, thank you for your time today. We really appreciate it. Yeah, thanks for having me on. You guys have a great day. Thank you so much. You too. And with that, That's going to do it for today's episode. Thanks so much for joining us here on the Daily Signal podcast. If you're curious to learn more about the situation on America's southern border, make sure that you check out the Daily Signal website. And you can find a tab at the top that has all of our border-related reporting and shows both the situation, the investigation related to Mayorkas, and has commentary from Herod Foundation experts giving their analysis

on the current situation at the border. Also, make sure to take a minute to support. Subscribe to the Daily Signal wherever you like to get your podcast and help us reach more listeners by leaving us a five-star rating and review. Thanks again for being with us today. We'll see you right back here around 5 p.m. for our top news edition. The Daily Signal podcast is brought to you by more than half a million members of the Heritage Foundation. Executive producers are Rob Bowie and Kate Trinko. Producers are Virginia Allen and Samantha Asheras. Sound designed by Lauren Evans, Mark Geinney, and John Pop.

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