TALLAHASSEE, FL—Congressional Republicans failed last week to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, a member of Biden's Cabinet, over the ongoing illegal immigration surge at the U.S.-Mexico border. In an interview with The Floridian, Sen. Blaise Ingoglia expresses his opinion on where conservatives went wrong.
"It's unfortunate. I think it was right for the House to impeach Mayorkas because it was an absolute dereliction of duty, not being forthcoming with Congress on the problems at the border, basically trying to just sweep it under the rug," Republican Sen. Blaise Ingoglia told The Floridian. "I understand that's it very difficult to impeach a Cabinet officer, I just don't understand why they would put it up for a vote if they did not 100 percent know that they had the votes in order to do it,"
Mayorkas has called the record numbers of immigrants at the southern border and across the world an "era of global migration", leading many Republicans to believe he committed a "dereliction of duty" as the Homeland Security Secretary. In a 216-214 vote, the House ultimately voted against impeaching Mayorkas, due to four Republicans changing their votes.
"I think it's a loss for House Republicans, but I'm sure this fight isn't over," added Ingoglia
Amidst the impeachment charges, Mayorkas had been working on a now-dead, formerly bipartisan immigration bill. Republicans soon turned against the legislation, citing a potential increase in illegal immigration.
"Being an effective legislator is all about leverage," Ingoglia said, criticizing Republicans' initial support of Biden's bill. "What Senate Republicans unfortunately did was take away any of the leverage that they had in terms of totally fixing the border. What they're doing is just normalizing what's going on right now,"
"I just think that the Republican negotiators were actually negotiating against themselves," he added.
Ingoglia believes Biden should reinstitute former President Trump's "Remain in Mexico" policy, which required immigrants awaiting asylum hearings to stay in Mexico until their hearings. The policy was struck down by the Supreme Court in 2022.
"Biden should reinstitute the Remain in Mexico policy. I think that would benefit him both policy-wise and politically," He said. "The challenge for Biden is he's surrounded by a bunch of progressive Democrats who through their actions and their deeds, not necessarily by their rhetoric, are supporting an open border policy,".
