Republicans Flood the Border To Ramp Up Pressure on Biden Over Immigration

Ahead of a House Judiciary Committee field hearing next week, Speaker McCarthy is visiting the border Thursday as part of a major push by House Republicans to make border security a higher-profile issue.The White House has already criticized the visit as empty messaging, with a spokesman, Ian Sams, saying that House Republicans “should spend less time on partisan publicity stunts and more time working on solutions.”“Solutions are what President Biden is focused on,” Mr. Sams said in a statement. “House Republicans would be wise to join him to work together to strengthen our immigration system and fund border security.”Mr. McCarthy’s visit is part of a blitz by Republican lawmakers aiming to boost border security as an electoral and political issue, with members of multiple House committees making the trip there this week.The Joint Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigation, the Subcommittee on Health, and the House Committee on Energy and Commerce on Wednesday held field hearings at the border in Texas.Mr. McCarthy is in Arizona alongside three Republican representatives, Juan Ciscomani, Lori Chavez-DeRemer, Jen Kiggans, and Derrick Van Orden, to talk about the border. It is Mr. McCarthy’s first visit since becoming speaker.Next week the House Judiciary Committee, led by Representative Jim Jordan, will hold a field hearing in Arizona to address border security.Some, such as the district director for Representative Juan Ciscomani, C.J. KaraMargin, have defended the visits as a way for legislators to see for themselves the situation on the ground there.“The key point here is for the speaker and other members of Congress to get a firsthand assessment of the situation on the border and its impact on local communities,” Mr. Karamargin told AZCentral.The blitz began in early February, with a call from House Republicans for the impeachment of the Department of Homeland Security secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas. Mr. Jordan is hoping to lead that effort.If successful, the move would be the first impeachment of a Cabinet secretary since 1876, though it’s not yet clear on what grounds the House Republicans are planning to impeach Mr. Mayorkas. The Constitution explicitly outlines a few grounds for impeachment, namely, “Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.”Mr. McCarthy is so far only promising an investigation into Mr. Mayorkas, and has not yet agreed to a full impeachment inquiry, though he is facing heavy pressure to do so from members of his party.“If a person is derelict in their duties and they are harming Americans and Americans are actually dying by the lack of their work, that could rise to that occasion,” Mr. McCarthy told reporters last week.Such a maneuver would be almost certain to die in the Senate, as it takes two-thirds of the body to convict in impeachment proceedings.Although multiple Republicans, including Mr. McCarthy, have called on Mr. Mayorkas to resign, he has said he has no intention to do so. Last week, when asked whether he would resign, Mr. Mayorkas told ABC News, “I’ve got a lot of work to do, and we’re going to do it.”The Republican push on the border comes as Americans have soured on immigration, with a Gallup Poll conducted in January suggesting that only 28 percent of Americans are satisfied with immigration policy.The poll also found that 40 percent of Americans want immigration numbers to decrease. Broken down by party, 71 percent of Republicans, 36 percent of independents, and 19 percent of Democrats favor the idea.President Biden has already taken some action to curtail illegal crossings at the border, and January saw a decrease in border crossings from the previous month — down by about 150,000 from December’s number of about 251,000. The decrease in crossings is largely due to the expansion of humanitarian parole for Venezuelans, Nicaraguans, Cubans, and Haitians, as well as a more aggressive policy of returning to Mexico migrants from those countries who do not enter America legally.Some critics have argued that the administration’s program is simply allowing those who would have entered illegally to enter legally.

Republicans Flood the Border To Ramp Up Pressure on Biden Over Immigration

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