Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ) has moved to impeach President Joe Biden’s Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on the basis that he is derelict of duty at the southern border, where a record-high number of immigrants were encountered attempting to enter illegally in December.
Surrounded by more than a dozen other conservative Republicans, Biggs announced outside the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday afternoon that he was filing articles of impeachment against the Senate-confirmed official.
“We don’t willy-nilly take upon us the notion of impeaching a member of the Biden Cabinet,” said Biggs. “What you’re seeing is the systematic destruction of the geographical integrity of the United States of America. We don’t control our southern border. It is controlled by the criminal drug cartels of Mexico. That is critical to understand why we must undertake this most serious of actions.”
The introduction comes two weeks after another border-state lawmaker, Rep. Pat Fallon (R-TX), put forth three articles of impeachment against Mayorkas.
“I also introduced articles of impeachment on Alejandro Mayorkas. Let me be clear. Everyone is on the same team,” Fallon said. “I hope, quite frankly, there are more articles that are filed because there has been a gross dereliction of duty. We’re all here to achieve the same goal. We want to remove AM from office.”
Biggs claimed Mayorkas fought and rescinded a slew of Trump-era border measures to cripple the immigration system purposely.
“This is done intentionally. This is not negligence. It is not by accident. It is not incompetence,” said Biggs.
Since Biden took office in January 2021, his administration stopped construction of the border wall, sued to end a policy that required asylum-seekers to remain in Mexico, stopped expelling the majority of illegal immigrants, and limited who federal immigration officers could arrest within the country.
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In December 2022, Biggs called for Mayorkas to be removed from office and had unsuccessfully introduced articles to impeach Mayorkas in 2021, when he was the House Freedom Caucus chairman.
The announcement comes the same day the House Judiciary Committee held a hearing on the border crisis to mark its first major oversight move of the GOP majority. The Judiciary Committee, on which Biggs sits, is the final committee that impeachment articles must be approved through before going to the House floor.
