WASHINGTON, DC – Noting that House Republicans have not come close to meeting the constitutional bar to remove U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas from office, and that Republicans torpedoed a bipartisan border security bill at the behest of former President Donald Trump, U.S. Senator Jack Reed (D-RI) issued the following statement condemning the second partisan attempt to impeach the U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security after House Republicans previously failed:

“Despite bipartisan opposition, a majority of House Republicans are willing to put politics first and try to impeach Secretary Mayorkas a second time.  Their first frivolous attempt to oust him failed.  Now they’re insisting on a redo and trying to rush it through on the eve of the New York special election to replace disgraced Republican George Santos (R-NY), before a new member of Congress could potentially be the deciding vote to stop this sham impeachment.

“Even President Trump’s own impeachment lawyers admitted that House Republicans don’t have evidence to impeach Secretary Mayorkas.  Their flimsy case is without merit.  Lowering the bar like this could lead to the routine impeachment of cabinet officials over policy disagreements. 

“Secretary Mayorkas is focused on strengthening border security, fixing our broken immigration system, and improving migration management policy.  That’s why he called on Congress to pass the strong, bipartisan reforms that Republicans said they wanted before they flip-flopped and torpedoed their own border security package, which was endorsed by Border Patrol agents. 

“House Republicans aren’t serious about governing or strengthening the border.  Instead, they’re wasting time and taxpayer dollars on a meritless impeachment case to appease Donald Trump and distract from the fact that they tanked tougher border security.

“I hope Democrats and responsible Republicans with some integrity will once again reject this shameful charade.”