Sen. Roger Marshall (R-KS) says Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas “must be impeached” for overseeing a record number of illegal aliens who are awaiting deportation but are not detained by federal officials while, at the same time, cutting deportations.
On Tuesday evening, Marshall took to the Senate floor to request a vote of no confidence against Mayorkas. Marshall was joined by Sens. Eric Schmitt (R-MO), Rick Scott (R-FL), Mike Lee (R-UT), Mike Braun (R-IN), and Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) in support of the resolution.
Senate Democrats ultimately blocked the resolution.
In his resolution, Marshall detailed Mayorkas’s policy changes at DHS that have helped explode the illegal alien population while gutting interior immigration enforcement.
For instance, the number of illegal aliens in deportation proceedings but who are not detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) stands at nearly 6.2 million — a record and nearly double the 3.2 million illegal aliens who were on ICE’s non-detained docket in 2020. More than 1.2 million of these illegal aliens have final deportation orders but have yet to be removed.
“Never before has America seen a cabinet secretary defy their employees the way Alejandro Mayorkas has undermined the work of ICE officers,” Marshall told Breitbart News.
Chart via ICE
Chart via ICE
As Marshall noted, while driving up the number of illegal aliens on ICE’s non-detained docket, Mayorkas has overseen a drastic cut in deportations of illegal aliens living in the U.S. interior.
In Fiscal Year 2023, more than 3.2 million illegal aliens were encountered at the nation’s borders while just 142,580 illegal aliens were deported by ICE agents over the same period, indicating that illegal aliens have a less than five percent chance of being deported within a year upon their arrival in the U.S.
“Mayorkas has unilaterally dismantled ICE’s deportation capabilities at every turn,” Marshall said. “Over his first three years, this secretary has ignored federal immigration laws and abused the powers of his office, all for the sake of stripping ICE of its authority to enforce and uphold America’s national security.”
Weakening ICE like this is another example of this administration’s never-ending quest to erode our border security, leading to the lowest number of arrests and deportations in U.S. history,” Marshall continued. “Secretary Mayorkas’s record clearly shows that he has been a willing participant in the far left’s goal to defund and ultimately destroy ICE. For this, and a litany of other reasons, he must be impeached.”
Likewise, Marshall highlighted that ICE currently has detained in its custody just roughly 37,000 illegal aliens despite having enough detention beds to hold about 50,000 illegal aliens. Plans, overseen by Mayorkas, also look to shutter ICE detention facilities in Louisiana and California.
“With Mayorkas impeachment proceedings slated to begin today, his unlawful actions at the border are getting most of the attention,” R.J. Hauman, president of the National Immigration Center for Enforcement (NICE) told Breitbart News.
Marshall similarly mentioned Mayorkas’s plans to implement the “Release and Reporting Management” (RRM) program to “increase illegal immigration by rewarding lawbreakers and greatly reducing the number of aliens who would be subject to removal.”
The RRM program would ensure that the more than six million illegal aliens on ICE’s non-detained docket can simply make annual “check-ins” with the agency after their release into the U.S. interior.
In conjunction with the RRM program, Mayorkas is planning to roll out the ICE Secure Docket Card Program, which will give newly arrived illegal aliens a photo ID card upon their release into the U.S. interior. These photo IDs will work hand-in-hand with the agency’s Case Management Pilot Program, which offers taxpayer-funded benefits to illegal aliens in deportation proceedings.
“We can’t overlook a complete dismantling of immigration enforcement in the interior of the country,” Hauman said. “Senator Marshall’s resolution provides a scathing review of Mayorkas policies, programs, and public data as it relates to interior enforcement, proving that he continues to jeopardize public safety and undermine our national sovereignty. He must be impeached.”
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at
