The porous southern border continues to be a major focal point for the newly-established Republican majority in Congress, and the conversation heated up during recent testimony in from of a GOP-led committee Wednesday morning.
Representative Dan Bishop (R-NC) introduced one a simpatico speaker by blasting the current Biden administration’s policies that he says have led to the massive influx in both human and narcotics trafficking.
“The cause is the change in policy, is it not? Sir? Will you be candid enough to be unequivocal and clear that that has driven the change?” Bishop raged before handing over the talking stick to a U.S. Border Patrol Chief.
The border agent responded without hesitation. “I will tell you, sir, that when I was a deputy chief and the Acting Chief down here in 2014, you know, a lot of people describe what was happening here in south Texas as a humanitarian crisis, border crisis,” he began.
“And I was very candid, and I said that I think we have a bit of a policy crisis. And I still hold true that we have some policies in place where we need to ensure that the men and women out there patrolling the border investigating these criminal cartels are actually allowed to do their job each and every day,” the agent continued.
It was at this point that Bishop took the reigns again, asking a very simple question about the role of the Border Patrol agents and agency. “And their job is to detain or remove illegal immigrants?” he asked.
“Yes, sir,” came the reply.
“US Border Patrol Chief admits that Biden-Mayorkas policies are the cause of the current border crisis,” a tweet captioned with the video. Take a look at the exchange below:
WATCH: US Border Patrol Chief admits that Biden-Mayorkas policies are the cause of the current border crisis. pic.twitter.com/lH1JoNCRk6
— Rep. Dan Bishop (@RepDanBishop) March 15, 2023
The Washington Examiner wrote last February that House Republicans were working toward a solution for the problems at the southern border by drafting articles of impeachment against Joe Biden’s Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas. The Examiner wrote:
Reps. Andy Biggs (R-AZ) and Pat Fallon (R-TX) introduced articles of impeachment against Mayorkas last month. The congressmen contend that Mayorkas is not enforcing federal immigration laws. Biggs argued that Mayorkas has “violated his oath of office, wreaking havoc on this country, and he must be impeached.”
“Secretary Mayorkas has failed to faithfully uphold his oath and has instead presided over a reckless abandonment of border security and immigration enforcement, [at] the expense of the Constitution and the security of the United States,” the articles read in part.
Shortly after ending the House Speaker vote, Republicans immediately got to work to begin the process of drafting the articles. Representative Fallon spoke on Fox News about why Mayorkas deserved – and needed – to go.
“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,” Fallon offered in a prepared statement to the network.
“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,” he added.
As discussions swirl around not just the failed tenure of Mayorkas but that of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg as well, the Washington Examiner reminded readers that unfortunately the prospect of impeaching a sitting cabinet member is beyond rare.
“While talk of Mayorkas’s impeachment is growing, the impeachment of Cabinet members is all but unheard of,” the Examiner explained. “The only Cabinet member ever impeached was President Ulysses S. Grant’s secretary of war, William Belknap, some 150 years ago. He chose to resign rather than be subjected to what would be a likely conviction by the Senate.”
Historically rare or not, something has to give in the middle of these unprecendeted crisis.
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