Mayorkas Impeachment/Border

Floor Speech

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Ms. FOXX. Mr. Speaker, this week, the House Committee on Homeland Security is marking up Articles of Impeachment against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas for his stark dereliction of duty at our Nation's southern border.

I believe that Secretary Mayorkas deserves to be impeached for his failures, and my intention is to vote in favor of his impeachment.

That said, it is because of House Republicans' commitment to restoring regular order that we have now reached this critical juncture. Regular order has allowed the Homeland Security Committee to conclude its investigation into Secretary Mayorkas and move at an expedited pace in its consideration of these Articles of Impeachment.

It is well known that I voted to refer the impeachment process to this committee. Regular order can and should be followed, especially on such an important issue as this.

What has come to light now is that the vote to refer these articles to the Homeland Security Committee expedited the process by giving that committee sole jurisdiction over the articles. That vote gave us the quickest possible timeline to move these Articles of Impeachment to the Senate where a conviction can and should be affirmed.

We must also acknowledge that regular order has also preserved precious taxpayer dollars that would have otherwise been wasted if the Committee's investigation had been immediately cut short.

Mr. Speaker, while we are on the topic of the southern border, let me address the Senate's secret border deal.

The President has claimed that he needs Congress to pass legislation to empower him to secure the southern border. That is patently false. Congress has no such obligation to do so.

President Biden has always had the authority to enact measures at the southern border to deter illegal aliens from entering our country: ending catch and release; ceasing exploitation of parole authority; reinstating the remain in Mexico program; expanding the use of expedited removal authority; renewing construction of the border wall.

Let's not forget about what authority is granted to the President under the Immigration and Nationality Act as well: ``Whenever the President finds that the entry of any aliens or of any class of aliens into the United States would be detrimental to the interests of the United States, he may by proclamation, and for such period as he shall deem necessary, suspend the entry of all aliens or any class of aliens as immigrants or nonimmigrants, or impose on the entry of aliens any restrictions he may deem to be appropriate.''

Again, the President already has the authority to secure the southern border. Even in precedent set by the Supreme Court in Trump v. Hawaii, the President can make ``decisions whether and when to suspend entry, whose entry to suspend, for how long, and on what conditions.''

Mr. Speaker, President Biden is acting as if Congress has tied his hands and the only way he can secure the border is with more congressional approval.

The truth is that President Biden has been sitting on his own hands for months on end. Perhaps he should take a long, hard look in the mirror.

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