WASHINGTON—In case you missed it, border experts and legal scholars at The Heritage Foundation authored two op-eds laying out the evidence supporting the impeachment of U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and the constitutional duty of the Senate to hold a trial. The op-eds followed Heritage Action commending the House of Representatives for impeaching Sec. Mayorkas and urging the Senate to act.
Former DHS official Lora Ries, now the director of Heritage’s Border Security and Immigration Center, detailed which laws Sec. Mayorkas ignored and warned lawmakers against supporting a coverup in the Senate. Two Heritage legal experts—Hans von Spakovsky and Thomas Jipping—wrote an additional piece explaining that “the Senate has never refused to hold a trial when the impeached public official remained in office.”
Last week, Heritage Action Executive Vice President Ryan Walker echoed the sentiments laid out by the policy experts and legal scholars, saying, “Mayorkas ignored the law for three years, facilitating an invasion and a drug crisis that's killed thousands of Americans. If the Senate refuses to hold him accountable, they're complicit in a coverup and the border crisis itself.”
Key excerpts from the op-ed written by Ries, first published by Fox News, can be seen below. The full op-ed can be seen here.
“The result of Mayorkas’s mass parole and refusal to detain or remove the vast majority of encountered illegal aliens has resulted in an unfathomable 10.7 million encounters and known "got-aways." By knowingly overwhelming border agents and ordering them to process and release millions of illegal and inadmissible aliens into the country, Mayorkas has deliberately endangered the public safety of Americans and imposed huge costs on state and local governments and communities.”
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“Mayorkas has had three years to change course to secure the border and protect Americans, but he hasn’t. Instead, he’s only grown more deceitful about his operations. He has hid from Americans night flights to secretly dump illegal aliens into unprepared American communities. He has given billions of U.S. tax dollars to secretive NGOs that operate an extensive infrastructure intended to facilitate the entry and lengthy residence of illegal aliens in the country, while refusing to answer questions when confronted.”
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“Americans deserve a real Senate impeachment trial of Alejandro Mayorkas. Dismissing or tabling the impeachment, sending it to a trial committee to languish, or holding a one-day trial would all be unacceptable options.
“If Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer does that, he would be covering up evidence of fundamental wrongdoing and violating the public trust. And any senator who helps him—including Republicans—would be complicit in a coverup that tries to hide the dangerous misconduct of one of the worst officials to ever serve in the federal government.”
Key excerpts from the op-ed written by von Spakovsky and Jipping, first published by The Daily Signal, can be seen below. The full op-ed can be seen here.
“Rumors abound that Senate Democrats want to avoid holding a trial on the impeachment of Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas by “tabling” or otherwise dismissing the House impeachment articles. But doing so would be contrary to the Senate’s impeachment trial rules and its own historical practice.”
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“The place to debate whether Mayorkas’ actions constitute impeachable offenses was in the House, and the House made its decision. It is now the Senate’s responsibility under the Constitution to conduct an impeachment trial, a duty the Senate has never refused to fulfill. Conducting a trial is necessary to carry out the impeachment process the Constitution established, as well as to protect the public trust and the national security of the country.”
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“Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., should be the first to insist that this duty comes before partisan politics. He and the other members of the Senate have a constitutional obligation to the American people to undertake a serious, substantive hearing on the misbehavior of Mayorkas.”
At least 19 senators have publicly called for the Senate to hold a full trial for Sec. Mayorkas. Heritage Action applauds the lawmakers for speaking out, especially those who sent a letter urging Senate leadership to oppose attempts to table, dismiss, or ignore the impeachment. Every conservative senator should echo these calls or risk complicity in Leader Schumer’s attempts to hide evidence from the American people.
Supported by analysis from border policy and legal scholars at The Heritage Foundation, Heritage Action has called for the impeachment of Sec. Mayorkas for more than a year.
Heritage Action’s nationwide network of two million grassroots conservatives have driven thousands of calls to congressional offices urging impeachment.
BACKGROUND:
Heritage Action: Impeach DHS Secretary Mayorkas
The Heritage Foundation: The Case for Impeachment of Alejandro Nicholas Mayorkas Secretary of Homeland Security
The Heritage Foundation: Impeaching Mayorkas Is a Must, He Violated His Oath and Committed “High Crimes and Misdemeanors”
Heritage Action: H.R. 2 is the Only Solution to Securing the Border