One of the top items of order on the House Republicans‘ agenda is increasing U.S.-Mexico border security. But a recent proposal for accomplishing that goal seems to be drawing mixed opinions from Republican representatives.
On Tuesday, Texas Republican Representative Pat Fallon filed impeachment articles against U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas for high crimes and misdemeanors, but a narrow majority could divide House Republicans on the topic.
Republicans have been attempting to impeach Mayorkas for over a year, when Arizona Representative Andy Biggs filed a resolution to impeach Mayorkas for the same reason as Fallon in August 2021. Many Republicans have criticized President Joe Biden‘s administration for increased border crossings and illegal drug seizures at the border since Biden took office, and Mayorkas hasn’t escaped the scathing remarks.
However, other Republicans don’t believe Mayorkas’ actions call for impeachment.
In a December Roll Call article, several Republicans expressed hesitancy in pursuing Mayorkas’ impeachment. Although several of them admitted that Mayorkas’ performance has been less than stellar, they didn’t believe it was criminal.
“Show me treason, bribery or other high crimes and misdemeanors, and I’ll consider impeachment. I’ve not seen that,” California Republican Representative Tom McClintock said in the Roll Call article. “I’ve seen the worst administration of that department in its history, in fact, in the history of the country. But I’ve not seen an offense that the Constitution recognizes as impeachment.”
Representative Don Bacon, a Nebraska Republican, said pursuing Mayorkas’ impeachment might deter independent voters from voting Republican in the next election.
“The base gets fired up for that, but you don’t get swing voters or moderate voters on that,” Bacon said. “I would say there’s not a consensus for impeachment, but I do think our job is to do oversight. It’s one of our jobs. It’s not the only job, but there’s gonna be oversight—and I think it’s deserved.”
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy made border security one of his top priorities while campaigning for the Speaker role, and in November, he called for Mayorkas to step down from his position. Mayorkas refused, tempting some Republicans to pursue his impeachment.
Mayorkas has received blowback from Democrats as well after some images and video in 2021 showed what appeared to be border patrol agents allegedly using their horse reins to whip Haitian migrants making their way across the U.S.-Mexico border.
The party’s narrow majority has already proved cumbersome for one of the House’s first orders of business, in which it took 15 rounds of voting to elect McCarthy as Speaker. The struggle the party faces to unite against the same cause could prove challenging for impeaching Mayorkas, too.
Newsweek reached out to several House Republicans and a political strategy firm for comment.
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