Were you impressed by President Biden’s recent visit to El Paso, Texas? Neither was I. Between cleaning up the congregated homeless illegal aliens and the limited time he spent in the area, we can assume that Biden came on the scene with scant information and probably left more confused than ever.
If his protectors had to clean up the scene to avoid bruising his delicate sensibilities then you can be sure he simply either hasn’t heard about the border crisis or, like his border czar and most congressional Democrats, he is in denial. Either way, he went to El Paso without knowledge of or acknowledging the border crisis.
Having viewed the world of border security through the sanitized lens that Homeland Secretary Mayorkas provided, Biden wouldn’t have learned anything either.
The trip checked a box. Now his White House Spokesperson, Karine Jean-Pierre, can say that the president has been there and understands everything about the border.
Of course, that is a whopper. Biden obviously doesn’t get the border and the impacts of his failed policies at all.
And, that is why it is Secretary Mayorkas who should be impeached first, and with alacrity. Mayorkas is driving the failed policies at the southern border, not the out-of-touch incompetents in the White House, President Biden and Vice President Harris.
It is Mayorkas who has ordered Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to stand down and not enforce the law, which would normally require that ICE detain and remove those who have had due process and been ordered to leave our country. Mayorkas has violated the law with his order.
It is Mayorkas who has issued hundreds of thousands of “paroles” to illegal aliens so that he can order his agents to release them into the United States when the law otherwise requires them to leave the country or be detained. Mayorkas action is unlawful.
Mayorkas has repeatedly told the world that the border is operationally controlled, though he knows that is demonstrably and legally untrue. Perhaps we allow him the tolerance of the age to spin the narrative and deceive our fellow Americans, but he has also said the same under oath to Congress.
In fact, the law clearly defines the term “operational control” as the “prevention of all unlawful entries into the United States, including entries by terrorists, other unlawful aliens, instruments of terrorism, narcotics, and other contraband.”
The numbers are staggeringly revealing. They show that U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents have encountered millions of illegal aliens simply walking across our country since Mayorkas began implementing his open border policy. Mayorkas has let fentanyl get distributed throughout the country while allowing foreign terrorists and criminals to not just enter the United States but be taken to their chosen destination at government expense.
This is no accident nor is it incompetence. This is intentional, and as such it is impeachable.
You can understand why Mayorkas wanted to hide the real situation on the border from President Biden—because Biden has no clue what’s going on. It is Mayorkas who is driving the policies that have dismantled the border that was largely controlled under President Trump.
Here is a simple snapshot: Encounters in the Yuma Sector in Arizona for Fiscal Year 2020 were fewer than 9,000. That’s for the full Fiscal Year. Under Mayorkas, the number was almost 350,000 for Fiscal Year 2022. Now, that’s not an accident. That’s policy driven. Mayorkas is driving and controlling the policy. The recent Biden border trip is evidence that the most culpable for the illegality of our nation’s border response is Mayorkas.
That’s not all. Mayorkas should have taken the president to Eagle Pass or La Joya, two Texas areas that are being overrun by illegal border crossers. Near La Joya, there is a sign for illegal aliens directing them where to go to find Border Patrol Agents who must process them instead of arresting them.
There are dozens of places along the border or in our border states that Biden might have gone had Mayorkas been willing to cop to the irredeemable damage he has done to the country.
In the end, Biden checked his box and got his photo op, but he didn’t learn anything. And, the mastermind of the border collapse, Mayorkas, was able, with the help of the media, to cover up his border misdeeds. Surely my colleagues will agree that Mayorkas must be removed from office.
Congressman Andy Biggs serves Arizona’s Fifth Congressional District and is the co-chairman of the Congressional Border Security Caucus.