TEXAS, USA — The U.S. House Homeland Security Committee has voted, along party lines, to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. It now goes to the full House.
Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-San Antonio, sits on the Homeland Security Committee. He said the vote would likely be close, but he expects the full House to pass it.
"I do, I do. I mean, if you want to defend Secretary Mayorkas and you want to run on that, good luck,” Gonzales told us on Inside Texas Politics.
He also contends that it’s long past time that Congress held the Biden administration accountable. Gonzales says over 300,000 people entered the U.S. illegally in December.
According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, from May 2023 to December 31, the Department of Homeland Security removed or returned a record number of individuals—over 472,000—the vast majority of whom crossed the southwest border, including more than 78,800 individual family members.
“So, a change needs to happen, whether it's impeachment. Resign or do a new DHS, DHS secretary. Something has to change,” Gonzales said.
Democrats oppose the impeachment of Secretary Mayorkas. They argue that Mayorkas is acting under his legal authorities at the department and that the criticisms against him do not rise to the level of impeachment.
The U.S. Senate has been working on a bipartisan deal to fund the Texas-Mexico border. However, members of the House say it’s dead on arrival in their Chamber. Gonzales says he has to see the bill first before he can say whether or not he’ll vote for it.
“I want to see the text. I want to find out what’s in there. And I also say this, you know, we have to keep Americans safe,” said Gonzales.
President Joe Biden is offering a mechanism to let the president shut down the border if it gets overwhelmed -- over 5,000 people per day. Gonzales says he thinks the president’s plan to just focus on the illegal crossing is the wrong approach. He thinks the illegal crossings should be zero. And that Biden should focus on people who are trying to legally enter the U.S.
Gonzales and other Republicans say President Biden needs to enforce the laws on the books right now such as deportation for those that do not qualify for asylum.
“I'm talking about you got your day in court. You did not qualify. What's the next step? The next step is sending you back to your country of origin,” said Gonzales.
In less than a month, Congress must address government funding, by the first of March. Republicans are saying shut down the border and shut down the government.
Gonzales said he would vote against a continuing resolution unless it includes meaningful border security solutions. But he’d rather see a vote on the appropriations bills the Appropriations Committee passed.
“There's a lot of conservative wins in there. And I do believe we need to fund the government to ensure that those conservative wins get in there,” said Gonzales.
Gonzales also weighed in on Texas making a lot of news right now for ignoring the U.S. Supreme Court’s order to let Border Patrol cut the razor wire along Shelby Park there in Eagle Pass.
“It hurts me because the law enforcement officers on the ground, their brothers and sisters, their cousins, we should not be pitting the state versus the federal government. They should be working together to secure this border, said Gonzales.