Department of Homeland Security secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said on Wednesday he will cooperate with his own impeachment inquiry that a House committee announced would begin with its first hearing next week.
Mayorkas said during an an MSNBC interview that he “most certainly will” cooperate with the House Homeland Security Committee’s investigation and that he will continue to do his work. The DHS secretary noted he met with Republican and Democratic senators on Tuesday to help both parties come to an agreement on changing immigration policy as the border crisis worsens.
“I was on the Hill yesterday to provide technical advice in those ongoing negotiations,” Mayorkas said. “Before I headed to the Hill, I was in the office working on solutions. After my visit to the Hill, I was back in my office, working on solutions. That’s what we do in the Department of Homeland Security. That’s what this administration is focused on – solutions to problems.”
House Homeland Security chairman Mark Green (R., Tenn.) issued a statement on Wednesday announcing the first hearing concerning Mayorkas’s potential impeachment over his handling of the “unprecedented” southern-border crisis for January 10. The committee finished its “investigation into the causes, costs, and consequences of this crisis” last month and concluded that Mayorkas “demands accountability” for failing to secure the border since assuming office in 2021.
The latest impeachment effort against the Biden official comes after Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (R., Ga.) introduced articles of impeachment on the House floor in November. The resolution ultimately failed, but was referred to the Tennessee Republican’s committee. Greene withdrew her second push to impeach Mayorkas after House Homeland Security promised her it would move forward with the impeachment inquiry.
“The bipartisan House vote in November to refer articles of impeachment to my Committee only served to highlight the importance of our taking up the impeachment process — which is what we will begin doing next Wednesday,” Green said in his statement.
After November’s numbers for illegal migrant encounters were released last month just days before Christmas, the chairman indicated his committee would initiate impeachment proceedings into Mayorkas in early 2024. According to the data that Green cited, approximately 242,000 illegal immigrants tried crossing the southern border in November. Although December’s numbers haven’t yet been officially released, sources with U.S. Customs and Border Protection revealed this week that over 302,000 illegal immigrants were documented crossing the border last month.
Coinciding with Wednesday’s announcement, about 60 House Republicans traveled to the southern border in Texas to advocate for a crackdown on record immigration. Fox News reporter Bill Melugin posted on X that the Republicans in attendance were threatening to shut the government down if the border remains open.
Some of the prominent GOP congressmen that made the trip included Green, House Judiciary chairman Jim Jordan (R., Ohio), Representative Andy Biggs (R., Ariz.), Representative Matt Gaetz (R., Fla.), Representative Tony Gonzales (R., Texas), and Speaker Mike Johnson (R., La.). The border visit comes amid stalled immigration-policy negotiations between Senate Republicans and Democrats, with no bipartisan deal made yet.