Washington, D.C. (April 8, 2023) - The Biden administration’s immigration policy will again make headlines this week, as the U.S. House of Representatives delivers the articles of impeachment against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to the U.S. Senate. A new report from the Center for Immigration Studies explains that the U.S. Supreme Court’s June decision in U.S. v. Texas compelled the House of Representatives to act.
The analysis is by George Fishman, a Senior Legal Fellow at the Center who served as a Special Counsel for Chairman Mark Green of the House Committee on Homeland Security while on unpaid leave from the Center, assisting with the impeachment inquiry and proceedings.
The U.S. v. Texas decision altered the balance of power between the executive branch, Congress, and the states in instances where the executive branch chooses to less than faithfully execute U.S. immigration laws. Fishman emphasizes the critical role played by Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s opinion in U.S. v. Texas, which effectively eliminated judicial recourse against executive branch noncompliance with congressional immigration enforcement mandates.
Fishman contends that the decision left the House with little choice but to impeach Mayorkas should it desire to preserve its constitutional prerogatives and protect the states from the disastrous consequences of Mayorkas’s refusal to comply with federal immigration laws. As Chairman Mark Green stated, “The decision made clear that the Supreme Court views Congress as fully justified in responding to an executive branch official’s lawlessness through the impeachment process.”
“The House acted out of a sense of constitutional duty in impeaching Secretary Mayorkas. It is now up to the Senate to approach this matter with the same dedication to upholding the Constitution,” concludes Fishman.
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