Secretary Mayorkas Deserves To Be Impeached

COMMENTARY Crime and Justice

Secretary Mayorkas Deserves To Be Impeached

Mar 12, 2024 1 min read
COMMENTARY BY
Steven G. Bradbury

Distinguished Fellow

Steven G. Bradbury is a Distinguished Fellow at The Heritage Foundation.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas speaks about immigration and border security on February 29, 2024 in Olmito, Texas. Cheney Orr / Getty Images

Key Takeaways

President Biden can’t push forward his immigration agenda without a homeland-security secretary willing to abuse the powers of his department.

The articles of impeachment detail widespread and deliberate violations of law and breaches of public trust.

His unlawful actions are so harmful to our security and the rule of law that if the House fails to respond, there may be little left of the impeachment power.

Rep. Mike Gallagher recognizes that we face an unprecedented immigration catastrophe, but he is wrong in asserting that it isn’t appropriate for the House of Representatives to respond by impeaching Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas (“Why I Voted Against Impeaching Alejandro Mayorkas,” op-ed, Feb. 8).

President Biden can’t push forward his immigration agenda without a homeland-security secretary willing to abuse the powers of his department and violate the laws he took an oath to uphold. It is no excuse that Mr. Mayorkas is carrying out the president’s agenda.

Mr. Mayorkas isn’t accused of incompetence or “maladministration,” and his actions aren’t mere policy disputes or matters of enforcement discretion. The articles of impeachment detail widespread and deliberate violations of law and breaches of public trust. Mr. Mayorkas has blown through the limits of his enforcement discretion, and it is the House’s constitutional duty to respond.

This type of gross misconduct and abuse of authority is precisely what the Founders envisioned as impeachable offenses. There is no comparison to the strained and politicized impeachment charges advanced against former President Donald Trump.

Impeaching Mr. Mayorkas, though an extraordinary action, wouldn’t lower the constitutional bar or create a precedent for “perpetual impeachment” of future cabinet officers. Indeed, his example is so flagrant, and his unlawful actions so harmful to our security and the rule of law, that if the House fails to respond, there may be little left of the impeachment power.

This letter to the editor originally appeared in the Wall Street Journal on February 11, 2024