(Headline USA) A group of Republican lawmakers introduced a measure this week that would lower Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas’s salary to $1 over his handling of the border crisis.
Reps. Chip Roy, R-Texas, and Claudia Tenney, R-N.Y., proposed using the Holman rule, which allows lawmakers to cut the salaries of federal officials, in the upcoming House appropriations bill, arguing Mayorkas’s refusal to secure the border should be reflected in his pay.
“Secretary Mayorkas should not be paid hundreds of thousands of tax dollars to continually fail to protect American taxpayers from threats crossing our borders,” Tenney said in a statement. “Thanks to Secretary Mayorkas’s work, or lack thereof, there have been at least 5.8 million illegal crossings of our southern border since Biden took office, turning all our communities into border communities. If the president is refusing to fire him for his dereliction of duty, his salary must reflect his failures.”
Roy also threatened to withhold his support for any appropriations bill that does not address the border crisis and tighten security at the U.S.-Mexico border.
“It’s time to end this border crisis once and for all. The American people have no obligation to keep paying a federal official who refuses to do his job and uphold his oath, and that’s why we should zero out Mayorkas’s salary,” Roy said in a statement. “I’m glad to work with Rep. Tenney in this fight to regain operational control of the border.”
Co-sponsors on the amendment include Reps. Derrick Van Orden, R-Wis.; Jeff Duncan, R-S.C.; Russell Fry, R-S.C.; Scott DesJarlais, R-Tenn.; Bill Posey, R-Fla.; Carol Miller, R-W.Va.; Ryan Zinke, R-Mont.; and Harriet Hageman, R-Wyo.
House Republicans have also floated impeaching Mayorkas but have not yet voted on articles against him.
Initial numbers from U.S. Customs and Border Protection show officials apprehended 182,401 illegal immigrants in August. This year alone, more than 1.7 million illegal immigrants have been detained.
