Takeaways from House Republicans' first impeachment hearing into Mayorkas

WASHINGTON – House Republicans held their first impeachment hearing into Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Wednesday as they ramped up their attacks on Democrats and the White House over the migrant crisis at the southern border.

Justifying the impeachment proceedings, Republicans sought to portray Mayorkas, who has been a constant target for GOP lawmakers, as someone who deliberately allowed the crisis at the southern border.

“What we’re seeing here is a willful violation of his oath of office taken by Secretary Mayorkas,” House Homeland Security Committee Chair Mark Green, R-Tenn., said in his opening remarks in the hearing. “Let me repeat. A willful violation.”

Republicans are expected to push the impeachment efforts swiftly as GOP members have already long clamored to impeach Mayorkas. An effort from conservative firebrand Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., to force an impeachment vote on the House floor last year garnered significant GOP support, but fell short eight votes from Republicans who preferred impeachment go through committee first.

The first hearing offered largely a preview of what is to come and mirrored much of the political back and forth on Capitol Hill regarding the border. Here are key takeaways.

GOP lawmakers have long sought to impeach Mayorkas

In a letter to other members, Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, called to impeach Mayorkas “immediately” and praised Green’s handling of the effort on the Homeland Security Committee.

But House Democrats have heavily pushed back on the effort, arguing that Mayorkas cannot be impeached over what are policy disputes, saying that differences in opinion are not high crimes or misdemeanors, considered impeachable offenses.

“This is not a legitimate impeachment,” the top Democrat on the Homeland Security Committee, Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., said in the hearing, deriding the impeachment as a stunt and a play to throw “red meat to their base.”

Impeaching a Cabinet official is already extremely rare in U.S. history and has only happened once. The House impeached Defense Secretary William Belknap over charges of bribery in 1876 but the Senate later acquitted him. The move from House Republicans to impeach Mayorkas over a policy dispute  is additionally unprecedented.

But Green contended that Republicans were right to impeach Mayorkas, saying “the founders designed impeachment not just for officials engaged in criminal behavior but those guilty of such gross incompetence that their conduct had endangered their fellow Americans.”

But even if the House does impeach Mayorkas, the Democratic-controlled Senate would almost certainly acquit him. Conviction in the Senate requires a two-thirds vote.

House Republicans called forward three state GOP officials to testify in the hearing, State Attorney Generals Austin Knudsen of Montana, Andrew Bailey of Missouri and Gentner Drummon of Oklahoma who testified to the committee about how the crisis has affected their states, which do not lie along the border. The three told the committee that human trafficking and drug trafficking from the border has waded into their states. Drummon described the situation as “dangerous.”

Homeland Security Department and Democrats push back on Mayorkas impeachment

The Department of Homeland Security circulated a memo Wednesday morning dismissing the impeachment effort as a “baseless political attack” and argued that House Republicans have already decided to impeach Mayorkas far ahead of the hearing, noting a report that Green promised donors last year he would impeach the secretary and Greene saying impeachment was “guaranteed” to her by leadership after her failed effort to force a vote.

Among other points, the department argues impeachment “undercuts” efforts to address the migrant crisis at the border.

Meanwhile in the Senate, Mayorkas has been involved in delicate negotiations surrounding migrant and border policy changes tied to a broader foreign aid package. Those talks have progressed slowly because of the volatile nature of the issues, which are notorious on Capitol Hill for lawmakers’ repeated failures over the years to reach consensus on them.

In a call with reporters on Tuesday evening, Democrats on the House Homeland Security Committee ridiculed the impeachment as a waste of time and reiterated that Republicans could not impeach Mayorkas over disagreements in policy.

“It’s not dereliction of duty if Secretary Mayorkas is actually trying to negotiate legislation that would address the issues at the border. It’s hard to impeach someone who’s actively negotiating to try to solve the problem that they are trying to impeach him over,” Rep. Dan Goldman, D-N.Y., said.

“It’s not a good look for the House of Representatives that while the Senate is working diligently to craft a bill, the House is distracted by an impeachment drive with no legal merit,” Rep. Seth Magaziner, D-R.I., said, adding he does not “know how in the world that the Secretary is not diligently trying to do his job,” considering Mayorkas has been advising Senate negotiators.

Frank O. Bowman III, a law professor at the University of Missouri, testified on behalf of Democrats. Bowman testified to the committee that “removing the secretary changes nothing,” and said if Congress disagrees with the White House’s border and immigration policies, members already have power to enact legislative change.

“Impeachment is not” one of those powers, Bowman added.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: House GOP hold first Mayorkas impeachment hearing: Takeaways