(Mark Pellin, Headline USA) In a fierce indictment of myriad failures to secure the country’s southern border from a flood of illegal immigration and drug trafficking that has triggered widespread violence, crime and chaos, U.S. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy on Tuesday demanded the resignation of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
“He cannot and must not remain in that position,” McCarthy said in news conference in El Paso, Texas, following a visit to the border.
“If Secretary Mayorkas does not resign, House Republicans will investigate every order, every action and every failure to determine whether we can begin an impeachment inquiry.”
That promise takes on added weight as the GOP preps to regain control of the U.S. House and ponders its own internal leadership roles, with McCarthy the current speaker designee. A growing number of Republicans have been calling for Mayorkas to resign, as illegal border crossings continue to skyrocket under his watch.
There were nearly 2 million illegal immigrant encounters by border agents in 2021 and more than 2.3 million in fiscal year 2022. The coming fiscal year looks to continue that disturbing trend, with over 230,000 migrant encounters in October. Those numbers don’t include a daily estimated average of more than 2,500 “gotaways” slipping into the country.
The surge of illegal immigrants is only part of the problem, McCarthy said, noting that Mayorkas’s failures have also led to a record-high quantity of fentanyl flowing across the border and into American cities and towns.
“Today, 300 Americans will be poisoned and die,” McCarthy said of the fentanyl crisis. “Tomorrow, 300 more. It is the equivalent of an airline crashing each and every day in America.”
Those horrific numbers are a direct result of the Biden administration’s failures and Mayorkas’s deadly blunders.
“The actions of this administration have empowered cartels, drug smugglers, human traffickers and terrorist organizations all around the world.”
NEW: Images from GOP Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s team show the GOP delegation’s visit with Border Patrol in El Paso. Venezuelan migrants in a makeshift camp in Juarez, MX can be heard yelling to them from across the river. Venezuelans are being expelled via T42 for now. pic.twitter.com/JdtN4EOqJ9
— Bill Melugin (@BillFOXLA) November 22, 2022
U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales of Texas, one of several Republicans who spoke during the news conference, blamed Mayorkas and Biden for failing to support Border Patrol agents, making their jobs more difficult, dangerous and deadly.
“It’s no longer migrants who are dying at the border, it’s Americans,” Gonzales said, referencing the spike in Border Patrol agent suicides as agency morale has plummeted.
That criticism and concern was echoed by U.S. Rep. August Pfluger, R-Texas, who said that Mayorkas and Biden have “abandoned Texans, have abandoned Americans, and you have certainly abandoned the hard-working men and women of the United States Border Patrol.”
McCarthy drove home that message.
“The American public deserves more, deserves better and expects more within their government,” he said. “Enough is enough.”
