Marjorie Taylor Greene Handed Win in Impeachment Push

Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene scored a win in her efforts to impeach senior Biden officials this week after the House GOP set a start date on the impeachment of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

The House Homeland Security Committee announced Wednesday that it would meet next week on January 30 to begin the markup of four articles of impeachment for Mayorkas, handing a victory to Greene, who was the first lawmaker to introduce articles against Mayorkas back in May. A floor vote could come as soon as early February.

"In November, I forced the first vote in the House to impeach Mayorkas which sent my articles to the Homeland Security Committee," Greene said in a post on X, formerly Twitter. "Since then, our committee has worked hard to present the facts and evidence. And now on 1/30, my colleagues and I will finally hold Mayorkas accountable for his crimes on our southern border."

The Department of Homeland Security has criticized GOP efforts to topple Mayorkas. In a recent memo, the DHS harshly slammed Greene for pursuing an investigation that has "a pre-determined and 'guaranteed' result" and labeled those efforts as "harmful to the Department and its workforce."

DHS referred Newsweek to the memo when reached for comment.

For more than a year, House Republicans have sought to impeach the secretary over his handling of the U.S.-Mexico border, alleging that he violated his oath to office by failing to secure the border. If Republicans are successful, Mayorkas could be the first Cabinet member impeached since the 1870s.

The number of migrants who have crossed into the U.S. reached record highs again last month, with 302,000 encounters.

The situation at the border has increasingly become a thorn in the Biden administration's side. Not only have GOP lawmakers threatened to impeach the president's top Homeland Security official, but governors from Republican-led states have also ramped up pressure on the federal government by sending migrants to Democrat-led cities, whose resources are now strained due to the influx of arrivals.

The House Homeland Security Committee held two impeachment hearings this month, hearing from witnesses on the purported effects of the border crisis. Committee Chairman Representative Mark Greene has repeatedly blamed the Biden administration's immigration policies for the surge of migrants, calling the "tragedies" caused by the influx "infuriating" because they were "preventable."

Other House Republicans, including Representatives Michael McCaul of Texas, Ralph Norman of South Carolina, and Randy Feenstra of Iowa, celebrated Wednesday's announcement.

"HUGE!" Norman tweeted. "Step one in securing our border. Accountability for the man who intentionally caused this crisis."

"If this administration won't take action to protect America and secure our border, @HomelandGOP will," McCaul said. "It starts with impeaching the one man who has failed to enforce necessary laws and created this unprecedented crisis: Secretary Mayorkas."

On the other hand, Democrats and the White House have stood by Mayorkas, painting the GOP concerns as a "baseless political attack." There have even been some Republicans who have criticized the impeachment efforts, arguing that the bar for proving a high crime or misdemeanor is too far out of reach at this point.

Ian Sams, the White House spokesman for oversight and investigations, accused GOP lawmakers of refusing to include Mayorkas' testimony in last week's hearing on X. Invited two weeks before the hearing, Mayorkas was unable to attend last week's proceedings due to a prior commitment.

"House Republicans are refusing to allow Mayorkas to testify," Sams wrote. "They held two quick 'impeachment hearings' that were just theater to push rightwing messaging, not a valid impeachment process. They won't acknowledge constitutional scholars who say this effort is unconstitutional."

Update 1/24/24, 3:49 p.m. ET This story was updated with additional information.