Republicans release articles of impeachment against Biden Homeland Security secretary Mayorkas

Republicans in the lower chamber of Congress pushed ahead with their effort to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Sunday, while their colleagues in the Senate pursue the first real bipartisan attempt at addressing border security in more than a half decade.

Tennessee congressman Mark Green released a draft of his articles of impeachment set to be filed against Mr Mayorkas on Sunday; Mr Green in his legislation accused the secretary of willfully violating existing US immigration laws and breaching the public trust by supposedly lying to congressional investigators.

If the effort were to be successful, Mr Mayorkas would become only the second Cabinet secretary in history to be impeached. He will not be, however, as the Republican impeachment campaign is certain to die in the Senate (if it even passes the House). Democrats control the upper chamber and will through 2024; a successful removal of Mr Mayorkas from office would require two-thirds of the upper chamber to vote in favour.

The bulk of the GOP’s impeachment argument revolves around the idea that the Biden administration is not detaining the bulk of migrants who are encountered after illegal crossings as they pursue asylum claims. Both the Biden White House and previously the Trump administration struggled with the logistics of detaining the thousands of migrants crossing the US-Mexico border illegally every day; the Trump administration in particular faced intense criticism for the squalid conditions of many temporary migrant shelters and the policy of detaining young children apart from their parents in large caged-in areas.

Mr Green said in a statement Sunday that his draft resolution “lay[s] out a clear, compelling, and irrefutable case for