The US House Committee on Homeland Security has now (Sunday) released articles of impeachment against Homeland Security Department Director Alejandro Mayorkas, on the grounds that he knowingly deviated from existing statutory law regarding the detention of illegal entrants into the United States and made false statements to Congress regarding the state of the US-Mexico border.
The Department of Homeland Security called the impeachment "evidence-free" and "unconstitutional," insisting that the department has repeatedly complied with Congressional requests for information and that the US government has never had operational control of the border, in this administration or previous ones, so Mayorkas is not guilty of a particular dereliction of duty.
Professor Keith Whittington, an expert on the law and political of Congressional impeachment, published an analysis on X/Twitter of the case, arguing that the matter does not appear to go beyond an ordinary policy dispute best solved via elections and public hearings, not impeachment:
The debate over the Biden administration's handling of the border and illegal entrants into the United States has been bound up for months with negotiations over aid to Israel and Ukraine, as the Republican Party, which narrowly controls the House, has refused to approve aid to either without a border deal it considers satisfactory.
