California Democrat Representative Juan Vargas has announced that he might join with Republicans in impeaching Alejandro Mayorkas if the issue comes up for a vote on the House floor, but not for the reason GOP lawmakers are clamoring to do so.
At a press conference Friday, a frustrated Vargas told reporters that he might vote to oust the DHS chief if the government doesn’t stop construction of a new section of border wall at Friendship Park, a binational park on the international boundary between Tijuana, Mexico and San Diego in the United States.
“[Mayorkas] told us that he would help us, and he hasn’t done it,” Vargas said. “He betrayed us.” The lawmaker told media that the DHS chief assured him that he would help his constituency by stopping construction in the area, overseen by the US Customs and Border Protection, whose parent agency is the DHS.
The CBP plans to erect a massive new, 30-foot wall in the park, citing the decay of existing barriers and their supposed danger to public safety. The existing barriers feature gardens and art displays maintained by volunteers from both sides of the border, and activists fear construction would sever decades of cross-border ties while destroying the local scenery. Friendship Park was first opened by former First Lady Pat Nixon in 1971.
Construction of the new barriers began in late February, and is expected to be completed later this year if Vargas and his allies cannot stop it.
Republicans pushing for Mayorkas’ impeachment have yet to comment on the possible support from an unlikely ally like Vargas.
A group of GOP lawmakers led by Arizona Representative Andy Biggs introduced articles of impeachment against Mayorkas in February, calling the DHS chief as the “chief architect of the migration and drug invasion at our southern border.”
The DHS hired an outside law firm to defend Mayorkas, with some Republicans, particularly from its anti-Trump wing, reportedly getting cold feet on the idea of impeaching him.
Illegal immigration into the US has surged under President Biden after his administration repealed about a dozen hardline immigration-related directives introduced by his predecessor, with illegal crossings in fiscal year 2022 exceeding 2.7 million, breaking the previous record by a cool one million people.
Amid the crisis, the Biden administration rolled back some of its policy decisions, moving to finish sections of Trump’s signature border wall, implementing a policy which is expected to deny asylum to thousands of applicants, and promising to build a 'smart' border using sophisticated technologies including biometrics, AI, facial recognition, drones and autonomous surveillance towers.