Homeland Security chair slams Mayorkas' response to impeachment markup: 'Inadequate and unbecoming'

House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mark Green, R-Tenn., on Tuesday slammed Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas' response to him the day that the panel is scheduled to markup two articles of impeachment against the cabinet official. 

"Secretary Mayorkas’ 11th-hour response to the Committee is inadequate and unbecoming of a Cabinet secretary," Green said hours after Mayorkas sent a letter to him.

The two impeachment articles accuse Mayorkas of "willful and systemic refusal to comply with the law" and "breach of public trust," but the secretary told Green on Tuesday that the accusations are "false" and the border crisis needs "a legislative solution and only Congress can provide it."

The House committee said the arguments presented in Mayorkas' letter, which was his first direct response to Green involving the impeachment effort, "obviously fail to offer a defense of his willful and systemic refusal to comply with the law or his breach of the public’s trust as secretary."

While Mayorkas also said he agreed to testify for the impeachment inquiry but never received a response from the panel, Green wrote: "Our investigation has established that Secretary Mayorkas has willfully and systemically refused to comply with the laws of the United States and breached the public trust. The Committee would have preferred he accept our multiple invitations extended to him since last August to appear before us in person."

Sending a response hours before the markup, Mayorkas "indicates the contempt with which he views Congress, the American people, and the Constitution he swore an oath to defend," Green also said. 

The committee plans on marking up the articles Tuesday before sending them to the House for a vote, although even if it passes the House, Mayorkas is unlikely to be removed from the Democratic-controlled Senate. Regardless, it will still be a historical moment if he is impeached, as the first and only impeachment of a Cabinet official occurred nearly 150 years ago.

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