Washington — Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene is trying for a second time this month to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas over his handling of the U.S.-Mexico border, with the House set to consider a Democratic-led bid to kill the effort on Thursday.
Greene, a Georgia Republican, introduced her latest resolution to impeach Mayorkas on Wednesday as “privileged,” setting a two-day deadline for the House to act on it.
House lawmakers blocked her previous effort to impeach Mayorkas earlier in November, instead voting to refer the resolution to the Homeland Security Committee, effectively killing it. Eight Republicans voted with all Democrats to send the motion to the committee, which is investigating Mayorkas for his handling of the situation at the border.
Her new resolution is expected to have a similar fate, but Greene said she will keep reintroducing it until it succeeds.
The Mayorkas impeachment resolution
Greene’s seven-page resolution accuses Mayorkas of violating federal law and the Constitution by failing to “maintain operational control of the border” and prevent against an “invasion.”
Republican Rep. Tom McClintock of California, who voted for the Democratic-led motion to refer the last resolution to committee, said Wednesday that Mayorkas is guilty of “maladministration, malfeasance and neglect of duties on a truly cosmic scale.”
“But these are not impeachable offenses,” he said on the House floor.
If Greene’s impeachment push is successful, McClintock said he expects Democrats will move to impeach conservatives on the Supreme Court and Republican officials the next time they are have the House majority.
“There will be nobody to stop them because Republicans will have now signed off on this new and unconstitutional abuse of power,” he said.
Reps. Darrell Issa of California, Patrick McHenry of North Carolina and Virginia Foxx of North Carolina — who all voted to refer the last resolution — said earlier this month that an investigation into Mayorkas should be allowed to be completed before an impeachment vote.
A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security said earlier this month that Greene’s impeachment measure was a “baseless attack” that is “completely without merit and a harmful distraction from our critical national security priorities.”
“Every day, the men and women of the Department of Homeland Security work tirelessly to keep America safe. They need Congress to stop wasting time and do its job by funding the government, reforming our broken immigration system, reauthorizing vital tools for DHS, and passing the Administration’s supplemental request to properly resource the Department’s critical work to stop fentanyl and further secure our borders,” the spokesperson said.
