Impeached Homeland Security secretary navigates working with Republicans who want him out

WASHINGTON —  Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro N. Mayorkas was expected to be testifying about his agency’s 2025 budget Wednesday just as House Republicans advanced impeachment articles against him to the Senate.

Instead, Republicans held off, choosing to wait until next week while they attempt to make the case for a full Senate trial of the first U.S. Cabinet official impeached in nearly 150 years.

It has been two months since Mayorkas, a California native and the highest-ranking Latino in the federal government, was narrowly impeached by a single-vote margin.

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House Republicans, eyeing chaos at the southern border as a path to regain control of the White House and Senate, have said his failure to prevent record arrivals of migrants meets the constitutional bar for impeachment of “high crimes and misdemeanors.” They’ve accused him of refusing to enforce existing immigration laws and breaching the public trust by lying to Congress and saying the border was secure.

On Wednesday, Mayorkas carried on, testifying before the House and Senate appropriations subcommittees on homeland security. The at times tense back-and-forth of the hearings demonstrated the precarious position of the embattled secretary, who must find a way to work with Republicans who want him gone.

Mayorkas testified that his agency needs funding for more Border Patrol agents, asylum officers, detention capacity and deportation flights, while reiterating calls for Congress to pass the bipartisan national security bill that failed earlier this year.

Rep. Ashley Hinson (R-Iowa), echoing the arguments behind the impeachment case, told Mayorkas he was pointing fingers at Congress for a crisis of his own making.

“I called for your resignation last year and I stand by my request,” she told him.

Rep. Michael Cloud (R-Texas) recalled Mayorkas referencing expanding lawful pathways to the U.S. and asked him, “Who makes laws?”

“Congressman, if you must ask me questions the answers to which you know, allow me to answer: Congress,” Mayorkas replied.

Rep. Michael Guest (R-Miss.) brought up reports that President Biden is exploring an executive order to shut down the border without congressional authorization. Guest asked whether Mayorkas was involved in those discussions.

“We are consistently evaluating what options are available to us,” Mayorkas replied. “I will share with you that executive action, which is inevitably challenged in the courts, is no substitute for the enduring solution of legislation that will fix what everyone agrees is a broken immigration system.”

Still, Republican lawmakers were pleased to hear Mayorkas refer to the situation at the southern border as a crisis. He told NBC News it was a crisis in February, after Biden did so, but in previous congressional hearings had stopped short of using that word.

Rep. Lauren Underwood (D-Fla.), referencing what she called a “baseless impeachment effort,” thanked Mayorkas for his commitment to the job.

“You’ve faced an unprecedented, vicious and personal campaign against you and your staff at the Department of Homeland Security from my colleagues on the right,” she said.

At the onset of the Senate appropriations hearing Wednesday afternoon, Chair Christopher S. Murphy (D-Conn.) called out the impeachment articles as the elephant in the room.

“There’s not a single act of impeachable misconduct alleged by these articles,” he said. “The process was an embarrassment to the House of Representatives. These articles are laughable on their face.”

Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.), meanwhile, criticized Democrats for, as he sees it, trying to sweep the impeachment under the rug.

“Most Republicans don’t trust you, and a vast majority of the American people don’t trust you,” Kennedy said to Mayorkas. “That’s why you’ve been impeached.”

Republicans hoping for a full Senate trial are likely to be disappointed. Democrats hold the Senate majority and appear poised to immediately dismiss the case when it reaches the upper chamber next week. Democrats’ majority in the Senate is narrow, though, creating the possibility that the plan to dismiss the case may fall short if just a couple of Democrats defect.

Even if it did go to trial, Mayorkas is sure to be acquitted because it would take two-thirds of the Senate to convict him, and no Democrats have signaled support for the impeachment effort. Several Republican senators have also criticized it.

“We want to address this issue as expeditiously as possible,” Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) said in floor remarks Wednesday. “And as I said yesterday, impeachment should never be used to settle policy disagreements. That sets an awful precedent. So, when the time comes for the Senate to receive the articles of impeachment from the House, we’ll be ready.”

Democrats have called the impeachment effort a politically motivated overreach and say Mayorkas is being used as a pawn in the upcoming presidential race.

Mayorkas narrowly escaped the House’s first impeachment attempt when three GOP lawmakers, including one from California, broke ranks with their party and joined Democrats to vote against it. House Republican leaders succeeded on their second attempt.

“When I say that I am not focused on the impeachment proceedings, I actually mean it,” Mayorkas told reporters Friday. “It is my hope that my time is not taken away from my work.”