PHARR, Texas (Border Report) — The House Homeland Security Committee will begin impeachment hearings on Thursday against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, who notified committee members on Wednesday that he would be unable to attend or provide written testimony.
The Hill reported that Mayorkas will instead be entertaining a delegation from Mexico to discuss immigration and border security issues.
On Wednesday, House Homeland Security Chairman Mark Green, R-Tennessee, chastised Mayorkas.
“It is deeply troubling that Secretary Mayorkas has refused the committee’s multiple requests to appear before a co-equal branch of government. For months, we have tried to work with his office to secure his testimony before the committee so the American people can receive some much-needed transparency about the causes, costs, and consequences of the unprecedented border crisis. We have given him every opportunity to explain his handling of the crisis,” Green said.
In a statement last week, DHS officials criticized the impeachment efforts by the Republican-led House, calling it “baseless.”
“Instead of working in a bipartisan way to fix our broken immigration laws, the House Majority is wasting time on baseless and pointless political attacks by trying to impeach Secretary Mayorkas,” a DHS memo said.
During a visit to Eagle Pass, Texas, last week, Mayorkas spoke to reporters for over 30 minutes and made no mention of the impeachment hearings.
On Wednesday, 26 national security leaders from current and past administrations sent a letter to Green’s committee urging against impeachment hearings, writing that going forward “would be a grave mistake with far-reaching consequences for our nation.”
“Initiating such proceedings not only threatens to undermine national security but sets a perilous precedent that could have dire implications for the stability of our government,” the former officials wrote in the letter to the House Homeland Security Committee. “Impeaching Secretary Mayorkas would only serve to distract from the pressing need to implement effective policy solutions to rectify our immigration system and fortify America’s national security.”
They said the proceedings would not solve immigration problems, or address the root causes that draw immigrants to make the dangerous journey north to the United States.
“The way to provide security and order is for Republicans and Democrats to negotiate solutions, not to engage in political theater clearly designed for an election season,” said signatory Elizabeth Neumann, former DHS Assistant Secretary for Threat Prevention and Security Policy in the Trump administration.
“The current global migration trend requires balanced policies rather than actions that divide and polarize,” said Jennie Murray, president and CEO of the National Immigration Forum.
“If they were truly interested in public safety and confronting threats to ‘homeland security,’ these elected officials would be working to lower the temperature and to advance common sense solutions on immigration. They are not. Rather, they are pursuing a relentless political message that actively stokes a climate of fear, division, and danger,” said Vanessa Cárdenas, executive director of America’s Voice.
Sandra Sanchez can be reached at SSanchez@BorderReport.com.
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