Rep. Chip Roy calls for impeachment proceedings against DHS Secretary Mayorkas

Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, on Wednesday sent a letter to fellow House Republicans asking that they join him in calling for impeachment proceedings against Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

"While the world's attention has been directed toward Ukraine, the border of the United States is more dangerous, broken, and unsecure than ever. It demands our immediate attention and collective call for the impeachment of the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, Alejandro Nicholas Mayorkas," Roy wrote to his colleagues in a message published by Washington Examiner reporter Anna Giaritelli.

#ImpeachMayorkas https://t.co/35U63uWjMH

— Chip Roy (@chiproytx) March 16, 2022

While Mayorkas promised to defend the Constitution and U.S. laws when he was sworn in more than a year ago, Roy said, "following the orders of President Biden or acting on his own - he has embarked on the purposeful abandonment of the laws of the United States and the successful policies of the previous administration to secure our borders and protect our people."

While illegal immigration has hit historic highs under the Biden administration, deportations have fallen to their lowest level in more than a quarter of a century.

Roy argued that Mayorkas' actions "have resulted in the death and endangerment of Americans, damage to property and communities across the border, loss of operational control of our border to dangerous cartels imprisoning thousands of migrants sold into human trafficking, and the fueling of deadly drug poisonings of thousands of Americans."

Mayorkas admitted in January that the Biden administration's border policies were unpopular with Customs and Border Patrol agents. 

"The job has not gotten any easier over the last few months and it was very, very difficult throughout 2021," he told agents in a recording Townhall obtained.

In his letter to other GOP members of Congress, Roy wrote that it "It is most certainly a 'high crime or misdemeanor' for a public officer to purposefully endanger Americans while willfully ignoring one's oath to enforce our laws." 

A U.S. official may be impeached for "high crime or misdemeanors" per the U.S. Constitution.

"Impeaching Secretary Mayorkas is our duty," Roy told his fellow representatives. "We should call for it now - despite Democrat control of the House - and make the case for immediate border security better than any speeches we can give or bills we can introduce."