Republicans Warn DHS Secretary Mayorkas He Could Be Impeached

Two top Republicans have warned Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas that he faces possible impeachment proceedings if his department doesn’t quickly implement new border controls.

“Your failure to faithfully enforce this nation’s immigration laws and willful blindness to the very real humanitarian crisis at our southern border amounts to a gross dereliction of duty and a violation of your oath of office,” Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Ted Cruz (R-Texas) stated in a letter to the secretary. “This is gross dereliction of duty and, if not corrected swiftly, could provide grounds for impeachment.”

They included figures showing that the number of people crossing into the United States from Mexico has dramatically increased since Mayorkas and President Joe Biden took office about 19 months ago.

“Despite the heroic efforts by the men and women of Border Patrol, who operate with very little support from Washington, D.C., you have failed to achieve any semblance of operational control of the southern border,” the letter, dated Oct. 4, says.

Data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which is overseen by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), shows there were more than “4.4 million illegal crossings, including over 3.5 million apprehensions by CBP and at least 900,000 gotaways, who evaded apprehension,” they said.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) speaks at a press conference at the U.S. Capitol to discuss immigration at the southern border in Washington, D.C., on June 22, 2022. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

Graham and Cruz added that the surge of illegal immigration is accompanied by drug trafficking into U.S. communities.

“Drug cartels produce bulk amounts of fentanyl in Mexico, using the Chinese-supplied ingredients, and smuggle the drug across the U.S.–Mexico border,” they wrote. “This amounts to a multibillion-dollar business for transnational criminal organizations, who then launder the money out of the United States and