Since taking command of the Department of Homeland Security, Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has sparked a historic border crisis and sacrificed our national security at the altar of the Left’s open-borders agenda. He is unworthy of the public trust, and there is no longer any denying he is unfit for office.

Fortunately, our Constitution offers a remedy. If a Republican majority takes control in the next Congress, it should immediately impeach him. The charges against Mayorkas are serious. Most egregiously, he has conspired with open-borders advocates inside and outside the Biden administration to implement an unlawful agenda that has provoked a predictable, devastating crisis. This was no accident.

During the transition, the incoming administration was warned about what would happen if they ended the Trump-era policies we helped craft. Mayorkas ignored us.

Immediately on the chopping block were safe third-country agreements, construction of the border wall system, and of course, the "Remain in Mexico" policy. And those were just the big-ticket policies. In just 18 months, Customs and Border Protection has recorded more than 4 million apprehensions—more than the previous four fiscal years combined. The encounters since last October have totaled more than 2.7 million, plus nearly 600,000 known got-aways and likely hundreds of thousands who entered completely undetected. These massive numbers have pulled up to 80% of Border Patrol agents off the front lines to process and release illegal immigrants more quickly into the interior. Fewer agents on the line mean more illegal immigrants and drugs pouring across an increasingly unguarded border. The cartels have stepped into the gap and now largely control our border.

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Fewer agents on the line also mean the number of got-aways has skyrocketed. Under Mayorkas, more than 1 million known got-aways have entered the United States and are at large in our communities. And remember, these are the individual immigrants who don’t want to be caught. Convicted and violent criminals, gang members, and potential terrorists are slipping by in droves.

Since October 2021, more people on the FBI’s Terrorist Screening Database (98) have been caught crossing the border than in the previous five years combined. Mayorkas has also devastated interior enforcement, limiting Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s ability to remove those here illegally.

His new guidance upon taking office severely restricted ICE agents’ ability to detain and deport illegal immigrants. Unless an illegal immigrant is a known or suspected terrorist, spy, or convicted aggravated felon, it is very unlikely that the person will be deported. And Mayorkas himself has said that simply being in the country illegally is not enough to warrant deportation. Unsurprisingly, in fiscal 2021, ICE recorded the lowest number of deportations in its history.

Mayorkas has sent a clear message to the world: Lawbreakers will not be held accountable. He has undone effective border security policies, intentionally created a historic border crisis, and gutted law enforcement’s ability to remove those here illegally.

And he’s repeatedly lied to Congress and the country about it.

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Back in March 2021, Mayorkas told Fox News, "The border is secure. The border is closed." It was a lie then and it is a lie now. That didn’t stop Mayorkas from repeating it this July. He told the Senate he had "effectively managed" the crisis—another lie. He even claimed that DHS has "operational control" of the border. And thanks to documents obtained by Heritage’s Oversight Project, we have proof he misled the country about what happened in Del Rio last year.

Meanwhile, Americans (and immigrants) are suffering. Ninety-five percent of the fentanyl flowing into our country comes across the open border. It is killing people in record numbers, and it has become the leading cause of death in the U.S. for people 18-45. Local law enforcement officers are arresting illegal immigrants in our communities every day for criminal offenses. More illegal immigrants (1,300+) have been found dead on U.S. soil under Mayorkas’s leadership than ever before.

He has had 18 months to admit his failure and change course—or resign in protest. He has done neither. He has shown his complete contempt for the law. The next Congress must impeach him.