House Republicans release articles of impeachment against Homeland Security Secretary Mayorkas

By Sam Fossum, Priscilla Alvarez and Annie Grayer, CNN

(CNN) — House Republicans on Sunday released two articles of impeachment against Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, laying out their allegations that the cabinet secretary committed “high crimes and misdemeanors” ahead of a committee vote later this week.

The first article charges Mayorkas with “willful and systemic refusal to comply with the law” and House Republicans allege in the second article that Mayorkas has “breached the public trust” by allegedly making “false statements.”

The Homeland Security Committee will meet Tuesday to mark up the articles.

The top Democrat on the committee, Rep. Bennie Thompson, pushed back against the unveiled articles and accused the House GOP of “abusing” its impeachment power.

“What is glaringly missing from these articles is any real charge or even a shred of evidence of high crimes or misdemeanors – the Constitutional standard for impeachment. That should come as no surprise because Republicans’ so-called ‘investigation’ of Secretary Mayorkas has been a remarkably fact-free affair,” Thompson said in a statement.

The Department of Homeland Security similarly blasted House Republicans over the articles, calling the upcoming committee vote a “farce” and a “distraction from other vital national security priorities.”

The agency has been plotting its response to impeachment proceedings against Mayorkas, who early on emerged as a top target of Republicans over the Biden administration’s border policies.

In a newly released memo, the Department of Homeland Security slammed the impeachment inquiry, arguing that there are no high crimes or misdemeanors and that the probe was “predetermined from the start.” The memo described the process as “cynical and hypocritical.”

“Beyond being an illegitimate exercise unworthy of the job Members of Congress were actually sent to Washington to do, the CHS Republicans’ impeachment effort is baseless. Secretary Mayorkas is enforcing and utilizing the law to safeguard our homeland exactly as every one of his predecessors did,” the memo reads.

Senior communications, legal and legislative aides at the White House have been meeting regularly for weeks with senior DHS leadership to align on strategy, according to a source familiar, including in direct calls between Mayorkas and several of Biden’s aides.

The department has also hired a private law firm to help with impeachment proceedings.

Mayorkas has pushed back against criticism and officials who work closely with him say he intends to remain in the post.

If the Homeland Security secretary is impeached, it would be an exceedingly rare event. Only one Cabinet official has ever been impeached in American history – Secretary of War William Belknap in 1876.

This story has been updated with additional information.

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