Speaker Johnson says House will impeach Mayorkas ‘as soon as possible’

Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA) announced that the House of Representatives will vote to remove Alejandro Mayorkas as secretary of homeland security "as soon as possible" after the chamber returns next week, as The Epoch Times reported. 

“When we return next week, by necessity, the Homeland Security Committee will move forward with Articles of Impeachment against Secretary Mayorkas," Johnson said.

A vote on the floor will be held as soon as possible thereafter,” the speaker further noted in a Jan. 26 letter to his Republican colleagues obtained by Punchbowl News.

Johnson accused President Joe Biden and his administration of intentionally causing the border issue between the United States and Mexico by disregarding and weakening the country's immigration rules in his letter.

“Rather than accept accountability, President Biden is now trying to blame Congress for what HE himself intentionally created,” he wrote.

The Working Group

For weeks, senators from both parties have tried to reach an agreement on a supplementary budget that would pay for border security as well as foreign assistance for Israel and Ukraine.

Last week, Johnson, Biden, and negotiators gathered at the White House to resolve their disagreements and forward the process. But he pointed out in Friday's message that talks seemed to have hit a wall in the Senate.

“If rumors about the contents of the draft proposal are true, it would have been dead on arrival in the House anyway,” he added, in reference to an alleged leaked draft that would reportedly include a provision to allow the release of 5,000 illegal immigrants per day into the country, among other concessions.

That is not true, according to the Republican negotiators. If impeachment were to occur, Mayorkas would join the ranks of the first U.S. Cabinet secretary to face impeachment since 1876 in the case of Secretary of War William W. Belknap. Ultimately, the Senate acquitted Belknap.

Border Standoff

The impeachment of Mayorkas is being considered amidst rising tensions between the Biden administration and Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who has intervened personally to stem the influx of illegal immigrants into his state.

Texas state officials started erecting razor wire to prevent unauthorized immigrants from entering a public park in Eagle Pass earlier this month. The park is located alongside the Rio Grande. The state will proceed with the installation of the wire regardless of the verdict by the U.S. Supreme Court, which supported the Biden administration and allowed federal officials to remove it.

“We have to do something,” Staff Sgt. Rene Cordova, spokesperson for the Texas Department of Public Safety, told reporters at a Jan. 23 press conference. Once the news spreads that Border Patrol is cutting the razor wire, the illegal immigrants will return, and “it won’t take them long to figure it out,” he said.

Abbott is not backing away from the border enforcement needed to protect the border and defended the state's decision in a defiant statement on X, formerly Twitter.

“The Executive Branch of the United States has a constitutional duty to enforce federal laws protecting States, including immigration laws on the books right now,” he said. “President Biden has refused to enforce those laws and has even violated them. The result is that he has smashed records for illegal immigration.”