[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. Res. 169 Introduced in Senate (IS)]
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118th CONGRESS
1st Session
S. RES. 169
Expressing the sense of the Senate that Secretary of Homeland Security
Alejandro Nicholas Mayorkas does not have the confidence of the Senate
or of the American people to faithfully carry out the duties of his
office.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
April 20, 2023
Mr. Marshall (for himself, Mr. Braun, Mr. Crapo, Mr. Cruz, Mr. Hawley,
Mr. Risch, Mr. Scott of Florida, Mr. Schmitt, Mr. Johnson, Ms. Lummis,
Mr. Lee, Mr. Rubio, Mr. Vance, Mrs. Blackburn, and Mr. Budd) submitted
the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on
Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
_______________________________________________________________________
RESOLUTION
Expressing the sense of the Senate that Secretary of Homeland Security
Alejandro Nicholas Mayorkas does not have the confidence of the Senate
or of the American people to faithfully carry out the duties of his
office.
Whereas, while serving as Secretary of Homeland Security, Alejandro Nicholas
Mayorkas, in violation of his constitutional oath, has engaged in a
pattern of conduct that is incompatible with his constitutional and
statutory duties as Secretary of Homeland Security, including by--
(1) failing to ``take all actions the Secretary determines necessary
and appropriate to achieve and maintain operational control over the entire
international land and maritime borders of the United States'', as required
under section 2(a) of the Secure Fence Act of 2006 (8 U.S.C. 1701 note),
which includes ``the prevention of all unlawful entries into the United
States, including entries by terrorists, other unlawful aliens, instruments
of terrorism, narcotics, and other contraband'', as evidenced by--
G (A) more than 5,500,000 illegal aliens crossing the United States
southern border during Secretary Mayorkas' term in office, including aliens
encountered by U.S. Customs and Border Protection and known got-aways, and
20 consecutive months with more than 150,000 illegal border crossings;
G (B) the apprehension of 98 individuals that match records within
the Terrorist Screening Database at the southern border during fiscal year
2022, which is more such apprehensions than occurred during the previous 5
years combined, and the apprehension of 80 such individuals during fiscal
year 2023 to date, which may lead to a higher rate of apprehensions of such
individuals during fiscal year 2023 than took place during fiscal year
2022; and
G (C) the failure of the Department of Homeland Security, under the
leadership of Secretary Mayorkas, to comply with provisions of the
Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1101 et seq.), which require the
detention of inadmissible aliens arriving in the United States or aliens
who are physically present in the United States without inspection until
processed, and the implementation by Secretary Mayorkas of unlawful and
misguided catch-and-release directives, such as the Notice to Report
process and the parole plus Alternatives to Detention process, which have
resulted in the reckless release of more than 1,000,000 illegal aliens into
the interior of the United States; and
(2) gravely endangering the national security of the United States,
undermining the operational control of our southern border, and encouraging
illegal immigration by--
G (A) terminating contracts for additional border wall construction
for which Congress appropriated funding; and
G (B) issuing memoranda rescinding the Migrant Protection Protocols
(commonly known as ``Remain in Mexico''), which was an indispensable tool
to address the border crisis and restore integrity to the immigration
system;
Whereas Secretary Mayorkas, in the memorandum announcing the termination of the
Migrant Protection Protocols program (MPP) on June 1, 2021,
acknowledged, ``some removal proceedings conducted pursuant to MPP were
completed more expeditiously than is typical for non-detained cases'';
Whereas Federal authorities seized more than 14,000 pounds of illicit fentanyl
along the southwest border during fiscal year 2022 and 13,800 pounds of
illicit fentanyl during fiscal year 2023 to date, which is evidence of
increased efforts by transnational criminal organizations to traffic
dangerous substances into the United States;
Whereas, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than
107,000 Americans died of drug overdoses in 2021, which exceeds the
number of such deaths in any previous year, and \2/3\ of such deaths
were caused by synthetic opioids (primarily fentanyl);
Whereas, under the leadership of Secretary Mayorkas, the Department of Homeland
Security formally opposed efforts to keep in place the order of
suspension issued by the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention under section 362 of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C.
265) as a result of the public health emergency relating to the COVID-19
pandemic (commonly known as the ``title 42 order'') in order to prevent
a crisis on the southern border;
Whereas with the termination of the title 42 order, the Department of Homeland
Security is planning to reroute asylum and parole applicants through the
CBP One mobile application and formal parole programs in order to
obscure border encounter numbers;
Whereas on multiple occasions while serving as Secretary of Homeland Security,
Alejandro Nicholas Mayorkas, in violation of his constitutional oath,
has willfully provided perjurious, or false and misleading testimony to
Congress, including--
(1) on April 28, 2022, during a hearing of the Committee on the
Judiciary of the House of Representatives, by responding to Congressman
Chip Roy's question, ``Will you testify under oath that we have operational
control of the border?'', with ``Yes we do'', despite the fact that, the
term ``operational control'' has been defined in law as ``the prevention of
all unlawful entries into the United States, including entries by
terrorists, other unlawful aliens, instruments of terrorism, narcotics, and
other contraband''; and
(2) on November 15, 2022, during a hearing of the Committee on Homeland
Security of the House of Representatives, by responding to Congressman Dan
Bishop's question, ``Do you continue to maintain that the border is
secure?'', with ``Yes, and we are working day in and day out to enhance
security, Congressman.'';
Whereas section 1621 of title 18, United States Code, clearly states that anyone
under oath who ``willfully and contrary to such oath states or
subscribes any material matter which he does not believe to be true'' is
guilty of perjury and shall be fined or imprisoned not more than 5
years, or both;
Whereas the record-breaking number of illegal alien encounters, including more
1,000,000 known ``got-aways'', and the record seizures of deadly
fentanyl and other contraband, confirm that Secretary Mayorkas has not
taken all actions necessary to ensure operational control of the
southern border, as required by law;
Whereas U.S. Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz, in a field hearing before the
Committee on Homeland Security of the House of Representatives, stated
that U.S. Border Patrol does not have operational control of the border,
which directly contradicts Secretary Mayorkas' April 2022 testimony to
the Committee on the Judiciary of the House of Representatives;
Whereas, in September 2021, while Alejandro Nicholas Mayorkas was serving as
Secretary of Homeland Security--
(1) approximately 15,000 Haitian migrants crossed the border from
Mexico into the United States and were concentrated in an encampment
underneath the international bridge between Mexico and the Del Rio, Texas,
Port of Entry and in surrounding areas;
(2) mounted Border Patrol agents and troopers with the Texas Department
of Public Safety dispersed a large group of migrants gathered near a boat
ramp located in the United States along the Rio Grande River, approximately
500 yards east of the Del Rio Port of Entry and then attempted to stop the
flow of all migrants illegally crossing the Rio Grande River into the
United States at that location;
(3) within hours of the incident described in paragraph (2)--
G (A) images and video surfaced on social media that showed multiple
Border Patrol agents on horseback using their horses to keep several
illegal immigrants from entering the United States after crossing the Rio
Grande in Del Rio, Texas;
G (B) extremist liberal activists rushed to judgement and falsely
accused the agents of whipping the illegal immigrants with their horse
reins, in spite of a statement by the photographer that the pictures were
misconstrued as showing abusive behavior; and
G (C) some activists made the disgusting false equivalency to
slavery; and
(4) Secretary Mayorkas, after Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security
for Public Affairs Marsha Espinosa emailed to him a news article explaining
that the photographer who took the images did not see the agents whipping
anyone--
G (A) misled the general public by publicly supporting the Biden
administration's false narrative that Border Patrol agents whipped Haitian
migrants; and
G (B) participated in a White House press conference during which he
publicly and falsely slandered the Border Patrol agents referred to in
paragraph (2), calling the images ``horrifying'' and an example of
``systemic racism'';
Whereas a 511-page report by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection's Office of
Personal Responsibility found ``no evidence that [Border Patrol agents]
involved in this incident struck, intentionally or otherwise, any
migrant with their reins'';
Whereas the National Border Patrol Council, which is the labor union
representing Border Patrol agents and support staff, is considering
supporting the impeachment of Secretary Mayorkas;
Whereas the actions of Secretary Mayorkas' department have encouraged foreign
nationals to attempt to illegally enter the United States at historic
levels, as evidenced by 251,012 enforcement encounters along the
southern border in December 2022, which is the highest number of
encounters ever recorded in a single month;
Whereas a major component of these failed immigration enforcement policies is
the Department of Homeland Security's disregard for its responsibility
to enforce Federal immigration laws, including Secretary Mayorkas' abuse
of discretion in granting humanitarian parole, which, according to
section 212(d)(5)(A) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C.
1182(d)(5)(A), is only to be used on a ``case-by-case basis for urgent
humanitarian reasons or significant public benefit'', and has been used
by Secretary Mayorkas' department to grant parole en masse on multiple
occasions, including new ``Processes for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans,
and Venezuelans'', which was announced in October 2022 and expanded in
January 2023;
Whereas the policies of the Department of Homeland Security, under the
leadership of Secretary Mayorkas, have encouraged increased numbers of
unaccompanied migrant children to enter the United States during the 2-
year period immediately preceding the date on which this resolution was
introduced, with large numbers of such children revealed by the New York
Times to have been forced into dangerous jobs in violations of child
labor laws;
Whereas, on March 28, 2023, Ranking Member Senator Lindsey Graham, during a
hearing of the Committee on the Judiciary of the Senate, pointed out
that under Secretary Mayorkas' watch--
(1) the southern border of the United States ``has gone from the lowest
illegal crossings in December 2020 to all-time highs with over 2,000,000
last fiscal year'';
(2) ``fentanyl is coming in at a pace we have never seen''; and
(3) ``more terrorists on the watch list are coming than any time since
we've been measuring these things'';
Whereas, during the same hearing, Senator Josh Hawley--
(1) compared the CBP One mobile application used to schedule
appointments and request humanitarian parole and asylum to ``a concierge
service for illegal immigrants'';
(2) commented to Secretary Mayorkas, ``rather than building a wall, Mr.
Secretary, you have built Ticketmaster for illegal immigrants''; and
Whereas during the same hearing--
(1) Secretary Mayorkas told Senator Ted Cruz that he did not recognize
wristbands abandoned along the border, which cartels commonly use for human
smuggling and trafficking and which act as a sort of registration system,
with different colors and patterns denoting the cartel responsible, how
many times a person has attempted to cross, and how much they owe to the
cartel; and
(2) Senator Cruz replied in frustration to Senator Mayorkas by calling
him incompetent and telling him, ``If you had integrity, you would
resign.'':
Now, therefore, be it
Resolved,
That it is the sense of the Senate that Secretary Alejandro
Nicholas Mayorkas no longer holds the confidence of the Senate or of
the American people to faithfully carry out his duties as Secretary of
Homeland Security.
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