Alejandro Mayorkas is accused of being responsible for the migration crisis at the border between the United States and Mexico. Republican elected officials in the US Congress announced on Wednesday that they were launching impeachment proceedings against the Minister of Homeland Security.
This announcement comes at a time when nearly 10,000 migrants cross the American border from Mexico every day, and the subject is politically hot a few months before the November presidential election. Republicans are calling the situation a humanitarian disaster and accusing the Minister of Homeland Security of causing the situation.
“Let him give account”
“Our investigation has clearly shown that this crisis stems from the minister’s decision-making and his refusal to enforce the laws passed by Congress,” Mark Green, chairman of the House’s Homeland Security Committee, said in a statement. House of Representatives.
“His failure to uphold his oath demands accountability,” he added. A first hearing must take place on Wednesday January 10. “Since President Biden has been in office, the government has done almost nothing to protect the border,” Republican Speaker of the House Mike Johnson said since then. “But we saw it with our own eyes, they opened the border to the whole world,” he said during a press conference in Texas, in front of the Rio Grande River, which demarcates the border with the Mexico.
A “waste” for a “political maneuver”
Faced with this criticism, the Department of Homeland Security accused Republicans of “wasting valuable time and taxpayer dollars” on a “political maneuver.” For Alejandro Mayorkas to be removed from office, a majority of lawmakers in the House of Representatives must first vote on his impeachment before the Senate, which in turn must find a two-thirds majority to complete the process.
A practically impossible scenario given that the Republicans only hold a very slim majority in the House of Representatives and the Senate has a Democratic majority. The launch of this impeachment procedure nonetheless remains a thorn in the side of Joe Biden, while the authorities recorded in December 302,000 arrests of migrants who entered the United States illegally, without these necessarily leading to an expulsion.