House GOP is moving swiftly toward Mayorkas’ impeachment as Senate focuses on a border security deal

WASHINGTON (AP) — Laying the groundwork for the impeachment of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, a House committee on Thursday heard from parents whose tearful testimony sought to link government border policy to their daughters’ deaths and from a law professor warning off the effort.

Committee Chairman Mark Green is heading toward a vote on Mayorkas’ impeachment by the end of the month, setting up action by the full House as soon as February — which would be a first for a Cabinet official in nearly 150 years.

Green, a Tennessee Republican, opened the second impeachment hearing saying “no American is safe” under Mayorkas’ handling of the U.S.-Mexico border, with a record number of illegal crossings. He argued that the secretary’s “egregious misconduct and failure to fulfill his oath of office” are grounds for impeachment.

But the panel’s top Democrat, Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, who has repeatedly insisted policy differences with President Joe Biden are not grounds for impeachment, was backed up by one of the witnesses, Princeton University law professor Deborah Pearlstein.

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