On Wednesday, the Department of Homeland Security responded to GOP House Leader Kevin McCarthy’s call for DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to resign or face possible impeachment. The agency said lawmakers could “do better than point the finger at someone else” for the problems at the southern border.
A DHS spokesperson told Fox News Digital, “Secretary Mayorkas is proud to further the noble mission of this Department, support its amazing staff, and serve the American people.” “The Department will keep working to ensure our laws are followed and our border is safe, as well as to build a safe, organized, and fair immigration system.”
McCarthy is thought to be the most likely person to take over as speaker of the House when Republicans take over next year. On Tuesday, he held a press conference at the southern border, where he said that the DHS chief must resign or risk being impeached because of how he has handled the migrant crisis. McCarthy said at the press conference in El Paso, Texas, “His actions have caused the biggest wave of illegal immigration in recorded history.” “This is why I’m asking the secretary to quit today.”
“He can’t and shouldn’t stay where he is,” he said. “If Secretary Mayorkas doesn’t quit, House Republicans will look into every order, action, and failure to see if we can start an impeachment investigation.”
McCarthy’s comments about Mayorkas are some of the harshest from Republican leaders. Lawmakers have been very critical of Mayorkas because of the migrant crisis, which has led to a historic wave of people crossing the border. In the fiscal year 2021, there were more than 1.7 million encounters with migrants, and in the fiscal year 2022, there were more than 2.3 million.
Also, so far in the fiscal year 2023, over 230,000 migrants have been seen. This is the highest number of migrants caught in October in years. Also, more than 2,500 people have “gotten away” from Border Patrol agents daily.
Republicans say that the high numbers are because of what the Biden administration did to Trump’s border security policies and how they enforced the law inside the country. They have also disagreed with Mayorkas’s claims that the border is “secure.”
The DHS says, however, that Mayorkas has no plans to step down and that the administration took over a broken and dismantled immigration system that Congress needs to fix. In a statement released on Wednesday, the DHS put the ball back in the court of Congress.
The DHS spokesperson said, “Congress members can do better than point the finger at someone else. They should come to the table and work on solutions for our broken system and old laws that haven’t been changed in over 40 years.”
Mayorkas and the administration have talked about working with Mexico to stop smuggling. For example, so far this year, over 5,000 people have been arrested for being part of smuggling organizations. It has also made it clear that the migrant crisis is a problem for the whole hemisphere, not just the U.S., because migration has been at its highest level since World War II, and the population is changing.
Chip Roy: To protect the southern border, we must take the offensive. “There are a lot of people moving around the whole hemisphere. People are moving from one country to another at a rate never seen before. It’s not just the border with Mexico, “Last week, Mayorkas told senators at a hearing what he had to say.
McCarthy’s press conference shows that the border is likely at the top of the House Republicans’ list of things to do next year. In July, the GOP devised a plan to fix the border crisis. This week, McCarthy said he wants to hold hearings at the southern border to show Democrats how bad the situation is.
He will also be pushed to move quickly by his people. Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Arizona, co-chair of the Border Security Caucus, tweeted that Republicans should “not be ambiguous” about the issue and that Mayorkas should be removed from office.
The White House, on the other hand, opposed McCarthy’s trip to the border and said that Republicans had no plan to solve the crisis, even though they put out a plan in July. “McCarthy has nothing set up. There is no plan from the Republican Party. They only pull stunts for political gain, “Karine Jean-Pierre, the press secretary for the White House, said Tuesday.
The press conference is also happening just a few weeks before Title 42, a public health law that has been used to send back most migrants at the border and has been a vital part of the administration’s work with Mexico to stop Venezuelan migration ends on December 21 because of a court order.
Mayorkas told lawmakers last week that there is a plan to end the order, which was first issued earlier this year when the administration tried to complete the directive. “What we are doing is precisely what we announced we would do in April this year, and we have been executing the plan,” he said.
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