[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 64 (Monday, April 15, 2024)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2726-S2727]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                          Mayorkas Impeachment

  Mr. CORNYN. Madam President, tomorrow the House of Representatives is 
expected to do something that is not normal but which is actually a 
rather extraordinary act, and that is to transmit Articles of 
Impeachment against the Secretary of Homeland Security, Alejandro 
Mayorkas. Over the last 3 years, Secretary Mayorkas has presided over 
an unprecedented security crisis at our southern border; the numbers 
vary but roughly 7.4 million migrant encounters, more than 1.8 million 
``got-aways''--people simply evading law enforcement and melting into 
the great American heartland--untold amounts of fentanyl and other 
deadly drugs pouring into our country that killed 108,000 people last 
year alone.
  Then there are the children: 400,000 children placed with sponsors in 
the interior of the United States that have

[[Page S2727]]

since been abandoned, literally, by the Biden administration. They say 
it is not their problem. They don't need to know whether they are going 
to school, whether they are getting the healthcare they need, or 
whether they are being trafficked for sex or involuntary servitude.
  Secretary Mayorkas, as the agent of the Biden administration 
responsible for this, has willfully and systemically refused to enforce 
our immigration laws. He has taken a bad situation and actually 
accomplished an amazing feat: He has actually made it worse, not 
better.
  Not only that, he has violated the public trust by repeatedly lying 
under oath to Congress and the American people.
  If these aren't impeachable offenses, I don't know what would 
qualify.
  Secretary Mayorkas must be held responsible for his actions, and I am 
glad our colleagues in the House took the first step toward public 
accountability. The ball will soon land in the Senate's court, and it 
is alarming that we are hearing from the Senate majority leader and our 
Democratic colleagues that they are preparing not to hold a trial--
which is what the Constitution and Senate rules require--but rather to 
sweep it under the rug without ever even holding a trial. That would 
mark the first time in American history that has happened and establish 
a dangerous new precedent.
  It is not too late, though, for our Democratic colleagues to abandon 
this misguided plan. But if they move forward, they should know that 
Republicans will use every tool available to us to try to force a full 
trial. Republican Senators are preparing points of order to prevent 
Democrats from violating the Constitution and Senate rules. But, of 
course, we are realists. We understand that if all 51 Democrats stand 
together, they could run rough shod over the Constitution and those 
same Senate rules.
  I plan to raise a point of order on the increased number of 
encounters with illegal immigrants that happened to be on the Terror 
Watchlist. These sorts of encounters used to be extremely uncommon. 
During the Trump administration, Border Patrol didn't encounter more 
than six suspected terrorists in a given year. When President Biden and 
Secretary Mayorkas took over, that changed dramatically.
  Last year alone, Border Patrol encountered 172 suspected terrorists, 
more than 98 percent of them from across the southern border. We don't 
even know, out of the 1.8 million, how many more people who are on the 
Terrorist Watchlist simply evaded law enforcement. So there could be--
probably are--many, many more.
  Making matters worse, at least some of these individuals have 
actually been released by the Biden administration into the interior of 
the United States. Last week, for example, NBC news reported that an 
Afghan migrant on the Terror Watchlist who was arrested by Border 
Patrol is now roaming freely in the United States. He was first 
apprehended last March for illegally crossing the border. Agents 
suspected that something was up, but they lacked enough information to 
reach a conclusion about whether he actually was or was not on that 
list. But rather than detain him while they attempted to verify his 
identity, Customs and Border Protection released him. Making matters 
worse, they didn't even notify Immigration and Customs Enforcement 
about his potential terrorist ties.
  Border Patrol, of course, works at the border; Immigration and 
Customs Enforcement is the one that enforces immigration law in the 
interior of the country, including repatriating or returning people who 
have made their way illegally or who otherwise are a threat to public 
safety.
  Well, ICE--Immigration and Customs Enforcement--simply waived him 
into the interior of the United States under the Biden administration's 
misguided policy called Alternatives to Detention Program. In other 
words, rather than detain dangerous people at the border, the Biden 
administration program is simply to release them. This same program 
actually allows these same individuals to apply for asylum, to receive 
a work authorization, and to fly within the interior of the United 
States. In other words, it does not restrict their activities one bit.

  It wasn't until February of this year, nearly 1 year after he was 
first arrested, that ICE was alerted about this individual's potential 
terrorist ties. ICE agents released the man in San Antonio in late 
February, and he appeared before an immigration judge in Texas last 
month. But for some inexplicable reason, ICE withheld from the judge 
information about the individual's potential terrorist ties. So without 
that information, the judge released the man on bond to wait his date 
in court in a year. Today, this man who is believed to be linked to an 
Afghan terror group is roaming freely in the United States. He could be 
anywhere.
  But this is just one example among hundreds or more, perhaps even 
thousands or more, of the many dangers Secretary Mayorkas has created 
and facilitated for the American people.
  So when the House votes on Articles of Impeachment, the Senate has a 
duty not only to be sworn as jurors--as we have done two times fairly 
recently--but also to call witnesses and hear arguments to understand 
how the Secretary's actions have impacted our country.
  And I would hope that Secretary Mayorkas, if he thinks he has nothing 
to hide, nothing to be ashamed of, that he would welcome the 
opportunity to defend and explain his actions. If he and our Democratic 
colleagues believe he has done nothing wrong, they have nothing to be 
afraid of. But, of course, we all know and the country knows better.