On Wednesday, two Republican senators accused Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas of “dereliction of duty,” saying that his neglect of border security has led to the illegal immigration crisis and could serve as grounds for impeachment.
Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) made the comments in a letter to Mayorkas, warning that Republicans will likely take Congress in a few months and hold Mayorkas accountable for his “willful negligence.”
“Your failure to faithfully enforce this nation’s immigration laws and willful blindness to the very real humanitarian crisis at our southern border amounts to a gross dereliction of duty and a violation of your oath of office. Historically high levels of illegal immigration and illicit drug trafficking demonstrate that our southern border is open for every kind of public health and national security threat imaginable,” the letter began. “Despite the heroic efforts by the men and women of Border Patrol, who operate with very little support from Washington, D.C., you have failed to achieve any semblance of operational control of the southern border. We have grave concerns about what this failure means for both national security and the health and safety of American citizens. These failures cannot go unaddressed, and your actions cannot be unaccounted for. The American people deserve better.”
The senators explained that the “conclusion that you have been derelict in your duties is supported by data from your own department. Since you assumed office as the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) 19 months ago, there have been over 4.4 million illegal crossings, including over 3.5 million apprehensions by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and at least 900,000 gotaways, who evaded apprehension.”
The senators then listed some of the illegal immigration records broken during Mayorkas’ time in office, including, “2,150,639 illegal alien encounters by CBP on the southern border in fiscal year 2022, the most ever in a single year; 1,734,686 encounters in fiscal year 2021, the second-most ever in a single year; 41,166 encounters in May 2022 alone, the most ever encounters in a single month; 235,706 encounters in April 2022 alone, the second-most ever encounters in a single month.”
“This deluge of illegal immigration shows no signs of stopping, or even slowing down. Border Patrol agents are currently logging 8,000 illegal alien encounters every day,” the letter said. “These numbers are stretching the Border Patrol to its operational limits, with many agents being pulled from enforcement duties in order to provide caretaking to the ever-growing stream of aliens.”
“Far from taking steps to address this crisis and secure the southern border, you have allowed the situation to worsen and pursued policies that have greatly exacerbated the problem while continuing to insist that ‘the border is secure,’” the letter concluded. “This is gross dereliction of duty and, if not corrected swiftly, could provide grounds for impeachment. We fully expect that in a few months’ time a Republican-led Congress will hold you to account for your willful negligence regarding the security of the southern border and the safety of the American people. We ask that you provide a full accounting of what DHS will do to achieve operational control of the southern border, as it is required to do by law, and stop the flow of illegal aliens and illicit drugs into the United States. Lives are depending on it.”
