Mike Johnson slams border handling by Mayorkas as ‘abject failure’ ahead of impeachment hearing

January 07, 2024 11:17 AM

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) on Sunday slammed Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas‘s handling of the southern border as an “abject failure” ahead of a planned Republican effort to impeach him.

Johnson accused Mayorkas of dodging Republicans at every juncture to “enforce the law, to do his job, and he’s done exactly the opposite” during an interview with CBS News’s Face the Nation moderator Margaret Brennan.

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Mike Johnson Steve McCraw — U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson, center left, and Texas Department of Public Safety chief Steve McCraw, center right, lead a group of Republican members of Congress during a tour of the Texas-Mexico border, Wednesday, Jan. 3, 2024, in Eagle Pass, Texas. About 60 fellow Republicans in Congress are on a visit to the Mexican border. Their trip comes as they are demanding hard-line immigration policies in exchange for backing President Joe Biden’s emergency wartime funding request for Ukraine. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

“It’s not because of impotence,” Johnson said. “I believe he has done this intentionally. I think these are intentional policy decisions that he’s made. And I think there must be accountability for that. And I can tell you, the vast majority of Americans agree with us on that point,” Johnson added.

The House Homeland Security Committee will hold its first impeachment hearing against Mayorkas on Jan. 10. Republicans led by Johnson have long contended that Mayorkas and the Biden administration have “lied” in their messaging that the southern border is closed, arguing that “everyone in America knows it’s not true.”

Brennan interrupted the speaker, arguing, “That’s also a semantic argument.”

“No, no, that’s a matter of objective fact,” Johnson responded. “And he has lied to Congress repeatedly.”

He continued, “Secretary Mayorkas has been to the border; he’s talked to the same officials that we have. He knows that this border is not secure. No one here believes it.”

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas testifies during a hearing of the Senate Appropriations Committee on Capitol Hill, Wednesday, Nov. 8, 2023.

Since Mayorkas was confirmed by the Senate in January 2021, crossings at the southern border have reached record highs. Under the Biden administration’s first three years, more than 6.7 million people have been encountered at the U.S.-Mexico border.

Several House conservatives have called for Mayorkas’s removal for months, even drafting their own articles of impeachment to charge him with high crimes and misdemeanors, while some have suggested their willingness to let the government shut down until Biden and Democrats agree to border security and asylum reforms.

Johnson sought to dispel concerns about government shutdown threats raised by his colleague Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX), telling Brennan, “That’s not what he intended to say.”

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The Senate is presently in the midst of border policy negotiations as a condition of approving supplemental aid to Ukraine. Despite House GOP efforts to impeach Mayorkas, Johnson affirmed, “of course we want a deal” to work out in the Senate.

Mayorkas is slated to travel to Eagle Pass, Texas, on Monday, where more than 12,000 migrants illegally entered the small town in the last week of 2023 alone.