[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 18 (Wednesday, January 31, 2024)]
[House]
[Pages H323-H324]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            SHAM IMPEACHMENT OF SECRETARY ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from New 
York (Mr. Espaillat) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. ESPAILLAT. Mr. Speaker, in 1986, Republican President Ronald 
Reagan signed the Immigration Reform and Control Act.
  That 1986 Reagan bill, in addition to implementing border security, 
granted a pathway to citizenship to nearly 3 million undocumented 
immigrants in the United States.
  Then in 1990, Mr. Speaker, Republican President George Bush signed 
another immigration act, which, among other measures, created the 
Temporary Protective Status program, known as TPS, to provide relief 
for immigrants from countries who are immersed in deep suffering.
  Later on, Mr. Speaker, his son, George W. Bush, also followed through 
in providing relief to immigrants across the Nation.
  Mr. Speaker, what has happened to that Republican Party? I want to 
know where they are today.
  Issues with our immigration system has existed since the Reagan 
years. The only difference today is their lack of bipartisan desire 
from MAGA Republicans to work with us and address this issue.
  President Bush worked with Senator Kennedy. George W. Bush worked 
across the aisle to find equal ground. Instead of coming to the table 
to address issues on the border security and compassionate measures 
like protections for Dreamers, which 80 percent of voters support, MAGA 
Republicans are turning their backs on legislation to fix our 
immigration system.
  Instead of doing their jobs, the latest stunt of House Republicans is 
a bogus, baseless impeachment inquiry of Secretary Mayorkas, which 
blames a single man for the situation at the border. A situation that 
has been around since the Reagan years and lays at the doorstep of a 
single man, Mr. Speaker, this issue. It is a bogus and baseless 
political tool in an election year. That is what this impeachment 
proceeding is, Mr. Speaker.
  Listen to the Republicans when they speak on this as they have time 
and time again failed to articulate any charge against Secretary 
Mayorkas.
  Even conservative experts agree this impeachment inquiry is a sham. 
Michael Chertoff, a former judge and DHS

[[Page H324]]

Secretary under President George W. Bush, stated that Republicans have 
failed to put forward any evidence that meets the bar for this 
impeachment. This is a bogus impeachment process that is used as a 
political tool in an election year.
  In reality, Secretary Mayorkas has done all he can to improve 
conditions in the ports of entry where fentanyl comes through every day 
through wheels, not through migrants.
  He has done all he could to bring technology to the border in a 
balanced approach, but even so, Secretary Mayorkas can only execute the 
laws that are written by Congress, and this Congress has been 
negligent, derelict in its duty not to pass comprehensive immigration 
reform.
  Instead of acting with us to fix this issue, Republicans are pursuing 
a bogus impeachment inquiry, trying to lay a problem that has dragged 
for decades upon decades upon decades in Republican administrations and 
Democrat administrations at the doorstep of Secretary Mayorkas. It is a 
bogus, political tool that they resort to every 4 years to try to get 
elected.
  And that is why, Mr. Speaker, they choose not to fix the problem. 
They don't want to put it in the rear-view mirror. They want to go to 
it every 4 years so they can flame xenophobia against ordinary 
immigrants like myself.
  I stand here to denounce this bogus, baseless impeachment proceeding 
against Secretary Mayorkas. If anybody should be expelled, it is the 
leadership of that party that has been negligent in their duties to 
address a balanced approach that takes into consideration border 
safety, that takes into consideration immigration reform, that takes 
into consideration the impact on the economy of farmworkers, that takes 
into consideration the root causes of migration in the hemisphere.

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