Mayorkas Impeachment

Floor Speech

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Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I would like to begin with a quotation:

Let me tell you something, New Yorkers, never in my life have I had a problem that I did not see an ending to [but] I don't see an ending to this. This issue will destroy New York City.

``This issue will destroy New York City.''

That is New York Mayor Eric Adams. He was responding to the crisis at our border. Mayor Adams is the mayor of our country's largest city.

Now, New York City is about 2,000 miles from Eagle Pass, TX, but the breathtaking influx of illegal immigrants into our country and the Secretary of Homeland Security's refusal to detain or deport them has brought New York City to its knees--to its knees.

Mayor Adams now knows what Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas won't admit. When reality calls, you can only ignore it for so long.

Secretary Mayorkas's actions have had consequences, and time is up. Time is up.

I am only going to say a brief word about the open, bleeding wound that is our southern border, which has been open wide to unknown people--to criminals, to cartels, and, yes, to terrorists.

No. 1, I know you know that fentanyl is now the No. 1 killer of Americans between the ages of 18 and 45 and that fentanyl is coming across our open southern border.

No. 2, we know that under Secretary Mayorkas's watch, human traffickers have built a $13 billion--not $13 million--$13 billion business trafficking human beings across our border.

No. 3, we also know that roughly 450,000 children unaccompanied have shown up at the border. And most of them have been released into our country. Many of them--we don't know how many--many of them have ended up in dangerous places with dangerous, evil people.

And, finally, as best we can tell, since President Biden has been President and Secretary Mayorkas has been Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, we have had 8.6 million people--8.6 million people--come into our country illegally. That is four Nebraskas--that is four Nebraskas. And we don't have the slightest idea who they are.

Now, the U.S. House of Representatives has investigated this crisis, and it has found that some of the blame for this crisis lies with Secretary Mayorkas. And the U.S. House of Representatives has impeached Secretary Mayorkas for it.

In its first Article of Impeachment, the House alleges that Secretary Mayorkas has ``willfully and systematically refused to comply with Federal immigration law.'' The House says that Secretary Mayorkas has refused to detain some illegal immigrants, as the law requires them to do, and has, instead, embraced his own catch-and-release scheme in which he has released huge numbers--I think any fairminded American would call 8.6 million people huge--huge numbers of illegal immigrants into the United States.

The House says that Secretary Mayorkas has refused to follow unambiguous and clear Federal laws that require him to detain illegal immigrants who are subject to deportation for engaging in criminal or terrorism-related behavior.

The House says that Secretary Mayorkas has failed to make case-by- case parole determinations, which the law clearly requires--clearly. And, instead, he has, on his own, paroled millions of people illegally into the United States en masse.

In its second Article of Impeachment, the House alleges that Secretary Mayorkas has breached the public trust in two respects: by knowingly making false statements to Congress that the border is ``secure'' and that the Department of Homeland Security has ``operational control'' of the border and by failing to comply with subpoenas issued by congressional committees seeking to exercise oversight over DHS activities.

Any fairminded person can see that these are serious charges. And they demand a full trial.

Let me say that again. They demand a full trial.

The Senate must let the House present its case. And then we must do our job and give that case careful consideration. If the Senate dismisses these charges without trial--as if it is just a parking ticket being fixed by some politician--it will be the first time--the very first time--in the Senate's long history that it has dismissed impeachment charges against an official it has jurisdiction over without that official first resigning--the very first time.

The House of Representatives of the U.S. Congress has voted to impeach 21 times--only 21 times--in the history of this country. The Senate has only dismissed those cases three times--three times. And two of the cases the Senate dismissed, the impeached official chose to resign instead of facing a trial in the Senate. As a result, the Senate dismissed the charges.

Secretary Mayorkas has not resigned.

In one of those cases--the last remaining case--the impeached official was a U.S. Senator. Perhaps some remember it. And the Senate concluded that the Constitution did not give it jurisdiction to remove a U.S. Senator through its impeachment process.

Now, in this case, everyone agrees that the Constitution gives Congress the power to impeach and remove a sitting Cabinet Secretary.

I repeat: The U.S. Senate cannot and should not turn a deaf ear to the democratically elected Members of the U.S. House of Representatives by dismissing their charges against Secretary Mayorkas without a full and fair trial.

Precedent demands a trial. Respect for the House of Representatives demands a trial. Respect for the law demands a trial. And the American people demand a trial, and they deserve it. The U.S. Senate should do its job.

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