Republican Texas Rep. Pat Fallon filed articles of impeachment against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, Fox News reported.
Fallon introduced the articles of impeachment against Mayorkas in the House on Monday for “high crimes and misdemeanors,” known as House Resolution 8.
“Since day one, Secretary Mayorkas’ policies have undermined law enforcement activities at our southern border,” Fallon said in a statement to Fox News last week. “From perjuring himself before Congress about maintaining operational control of the border to the infamous ‘whip-gate’ slander against our border patrol agents, Secretary Mayorkas has proven time and time again that he is unfit to lead the Department of Homeland Security.”
“His willful actions have eroded our immigration system, undermined border patrol morale, and jeopardized American national security. He has violated the law and it is time for him to go,” Fallon added.
The move comes in the first week of Republican California Rep. Kevin McCarthy’s tenure as speaker of the House.
McCarthy said if Republicans took back control of the House that Mayorkas could potentially face impeachment over his handling of the migrant crisis at the southern border, which has seen a record-breaking number of illegal immigrants crossing into the United States from Mexico.
“If Secretary Mayorkas does not resign, House Republicans will investigate every order, every action and every failure and will determine whether we can begin impeachment inquiry,” McCarthy told Fox News in November.
The U.S. Border Patrol reported encounters with migrants along the U.S.-Mexico border in the 2021 fiscal year were more than quadruple the number of the prior fiscal year and the highest annual total on record, according to Pew Research.
The U.S. saw 2,378,944 encounters at the border in fiscal year 2022, excluding the nearly 600,000 known “gotaways” who escaped custody altogether.
Fox News reported last week that Fallon’s articles of impeachment against Mayorkas would come in three sections.
The first article alleges that Mayorkas failed to faithfully execute the “Secure the Fence Act of 2006,” saying the law requires the secretary of Homeland Security to “maintain operational control over the entire international land and maritime borders of the United States.”
The second article accuses Mayorkas of being in “violation of his constitutional oath, willfully provided perjurious, false, and misleading testimony to Congress” for testifying the border was secure during April 26 and November 15 congressional hearings.
Fallon’s last article says that Mayorkas “publicly and falsely slandered” border agents who were accused of whipping Haitian migrants in Del Rio, Texas, in 2021. Those accusations were later cleared.
“The 511-page report by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Office of Personal Responsibility found ‘no evidence that [Border Patrol agents] involved in this incident struck, intentionally or otherwise, any migrant with their reins,’” Fallon wrote, according to Fox News. “Secretary Mayorkas slandered his own Border Patrol agents and TXDPS Troopers involved in this incident, contributing to a further decrease in already-low morale among agents.”
The files have been referred to the House Judiciary Committee.
Fallon promised to deliver the impeachment articles last week before the 118th Congress was officially sworn in.
Mayorkas told ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday that he would not resign over his handling of the southern border, adding he would be prepared for investigations by House Republicans.
“I do not,” Mayorkas said when pressed by anchor George Stephanopoulos to respond to McCarthy’s call for him to resign or if he had any plans to step down. “I’ve got a lot of work to do, and we’re going to do it.”