In a response to a series of reports that the House GOP majority wants to remove him from his office, Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas has taken loudly rejected the idea.
Mayorkas issued these statements as part of an interview with CNN’s Chris Wallace, who referred to the “slings and arrows of your critics” and asked if that would “force you out.”
“They will not force me out,” angrily exclaimed Mayorkas.
A record-setting increase in the number of illegal immigrants that have crossed the U.S.-Mexico border throughout Mayorkas tenure has pressed House Speaker Kevin McCarthy to issue a fairly blunt statement, saying, ” I am calling on the secretary to resign. He cannot and must not remain in that position. If Secretary Mayorkas does not resign, House Republicans will investigate every order, every action, and every failure will determine whether we can begin impeachment inquiry.”
A total of three committees in the House are currently looking into the issues surrounding the border. If Mayorkas is actually impeached, he would be the first Cabinet secretary to be impeached since all the way back in 1876.
Mayorkas, who has previously claimed that “The border is closed. The border is secure. The border is secure,” has stated that he has not done anything wrong at all, arguing, “I think it is a disagreement over policy, and I think it is used for political purposes to continue a negative dialogue about a migration challenge that is not unique to the United States, to continue that dialogue to uplift it for political reasons.”
“Critics point out in 2020, Donald Trump’s final year in office, U.S. border authorities encountered migrants 458,000 times at the border but under Joe Biden in 2022, there were 2.3 million encounters. How can you say the border is secure?” questioned Wallace.
“Right now the United States has millions of jobs opening due to the economic success of this administration,” stated Mayorkas in an attempt to deflect. “We have progressed in conquering the pandemic far more than the countries to the south of Mexico. And that makes the United States an appealing place of destination for people fleeing persecution or otherwise in desperate need of a better life.”
“What does secure mean to you?” Wallace once again pressed. “We have all seen the scenes of floods of people walking across shallow points in the Rio Grande. We’ve all seen the pictures of encampments in downtowns in El Paso, places in Arizona. We’ve all seen the pictures of the flood of migrants coming to New York. … By those standards, it is not a secure border. … Migrants believe there’s an open border.”
“I don’t think the more than 1.5 million people who have been removed or expelled from the border would consider the border open,” claimed Mayorkas before quickly attempting to spin and blame Republicans for the surge in illegal immigration. “But political leaders communicate that the border is open. That is music to the smugglers’ ears and the smugglers themselves spread —”
“Wait, wait, wait, you’re going to blame this all on Republican critics?” responded a shocked Wallace.
“They used that rhetoric,” shot back Mayorkas.
