The Daily Wire has exclusively obtained a letter sent Tuesday evening from Congressman Chip Roy (R-TX) to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, blasting President Joe Biden’s DHS chief for his handling of illegal immigration.
Roy’s letter told Mayorkas that if he allows the expiration of Title 42, a measure that allows for expedited deportation of illegal aliens due to public health crises like the COVID-19 pandemic, then his actions would “be unconscionable and, without question, an impeachable offense in its own right.” Title 42 is currently set to expire on April 20.
In the letter, Roy wrote to Mayorkas that “even if Congress were to set aside all these previous actions representing a breach of your duty and were to focus solely on the imminent decision you are purportedly planning to take — halting, particularly at this moment, the enforcement of 42 U.S. Code § 265 (Title 42) authority at the U.S. southern border — we would still be duty bound to impeach you.”
As The Daily Wire has previously reported, “Title 42, instituted during the Trump administration, allows the federal government to ‘expel’ immigrants, including asylum seekers, back to their home country without a hearing, over concerns that they could contribute to the spread of COVID-19.” The Biden administration has kept Title 42 in force, but that could end shortly if action is not taken by Mayorkas.
Roy’s official Twitter account claimed that “[t]he open borders crowd HATES this crucial Trump-era policy because it obstructs Democrats’ plan to bring as many illegal migrants as possible into the interior US. The Biden Admin has already chosen to eliminate enforcement as much as possible.”
Roy also added, “Mayorkas has long REFUSED to FULLY enforce Title 42. Fewer than 60% of illegal encounters have been turned away under Title 42 since Mayorkas took office. Before he took office, 80% were turned away.”
Yet even with that comparison, Roy also told Mayorkas in the letter sent Tuesday, “Sadly, the use of Title 42 authority has been the lone vestige of southern border security policy the United States has conducted under your leadership.”
“In fact, since you became Secretary, your Department has used Title 42 as the basis for almost ALL of those refused entry,” Roy continued. “Though, prior to your assumption of the post of DHS Secretary more than 80% were turned away and now only 50% – at least there was some brake.”
Roll Call recently reported that “border agents have expelled migrants more than 1.7 million times since the directive was implemented, including more than a million times last year alone.”
Democratic Senators Kyrsten Sinema and Mark Kelly, both of Arizona, are also calling for the Biden administration to extend Title 42. According to Roll Call, the pair sent a letter to Mayorkas last Thursday as well:
Title 42 “should not be in effect indefinitely,” Kelly and Sinema said in their letter, noting the dangerous conditions to which the policy subjects expelled migrants. But at the same time, chaos at the border “also negatively affects migrants’ safety and could further strain an already overwhelmed health care system at the border,” they wrote.
An abrupt policy change without a comprehensive plan ready to replace it “would significantly increase the strain on DHS, border communities, and local nonprofits that are already near or at capacity,” they said.
As The Daily Wire has previously reported, the Biden administration is currently dealing with one of the worst illegal immigration crises in history.
“Border encounters in February were up 63% from the same month last year as nearly 165,000 illegal immigrants flooded into the U.S. last month. “Our southern border is still totally uncontrolled,” The Daily Wire’s Ben Johnson also said on an episode of The Daily Wire’s podcast “Morning Wire.”
“The number of encounters at the border in February increased 63% compared to last year, which was the largest in U.S. history,” Johnson explained.
“Johnson pinned the blame on the Biden administration for the drastic increase in border crossings and the decrease in deportations since President Donald Trump left office in January 2021,” The Daily Wire explained:
“All in all, ICE has reported 2.5 million border encounters during the Biden presidency,” he said. “Of course, that includes a record-breaking 1.7 million known illegal entries in 2021. As the number of border crossings hit a record high last fiscal year, deportations fell by 30% — and they look to be even lower this year.”
Johnson also added that “things will only get worse when the Biden administration rescinds Title 42.”
Roy’s full letter to Mayorkas can be seen here:
Dear Secretary Mayorkas,
Your job as Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security — carried out under your oath to defend the Constitution — is to secure the United States of America. Yet, you have purposefully failed to do so, and in the process you have empowered criminal drug cartels, impaired the health of Americans, damaged America’s economic health, allowed illegal migrants to destroy private property, and placed American citizens at imminent risk of physical harm. These actions represent acts of impeachable conduct as Secretary — which we have documented in part — and represent a call to action for Congress to hold you to account.
However, even if Congress were to set aside all these previous actions representing a breach of your duty and were to focus solely on the imminent decision you are purportedly planning to take — halting, particularly at this moment, the enforcement of 42 U.S. Code § 265 (Title 42) authority at the U.S. southern border — we would still be duty bound to impeach you. Sadly, the use of Title 42 authority has been the lone vestige of southern border security policy the United States has conducted under your leadership. In fact, since you became Secretary, your Department has used Title 42 as the basis for almost ALL of those refused entry. Though, prior to your assumption of the post of DHS Secretary more than 80% were turned away and now only 50% – at least there was some brake.
Your decision to discontinue use of Title 42 policies will cause an immediate flood of illegal migration at our southern border, as well as the release of innumerable illegal migrants into the interior. You are doing this even as there remain serious restraints on Americans and serious questions about communicable disease throughout the globe. In sum, if your Department stops enforcing Title 42, you will knowingly cause irrevocable, catastrophic damage to the people and the security of the United States. This would be unconscionable and, without question, an impeachable offense in its own right.
Sincerely,
Chip Roy
Member of Congress
A previous version of this article incorrectly said that Title 42 would expire on March 30. It expires on April 20.