Analysis: GOP Impeachment Effort Against Homeland Security's Alejandro Mayorkas Falls Flat, Exposing Misconceptions On Migrants And Fentanyl

A House GOP effort to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas failed last week as three Republicans joined Democrats in voting against what would have been the second-ever impeachment move against a Cabinet member.

Some outlets called that vote a "stunning loss" for the GOP, while NBC pointed out that Rep. Al Green (D-TX) showed up to vote in a hospital gown and no socks, having just had surgery.

What's It All About?

The GOP is gunning for Mayorkas for not being strict enough on border security and refusing to "comply with the law" as they assert that he violated immigration laws by failing to detain a sufficient number of migrants.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) spiced things up at the debate when she spoke of an "invasion" at the border while painting migrants as fentanyl smugglers and holding Mayorkas personally responsible for the thousands of fentanyl deaths and overdoses gripping the U.S.

"These are people who have completely evaded U.S. authorities and are roaming the interior of the American communities, assaulting, raping, and murdering Americans," Greene said.

Texas State Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Austin) appeared on “Fox News Sunday” in late January where he got the fentanyl-migrant story rolling, after which quite a few other Republicans joined the fentanyl murder cries against Mayorkas.

The Problem Is, They're Wrong: Most Fentanyl Comes Into The US Via Legal Entry Ports

The vast majority of fentanyl seizures — more than 90% — occur at official ports of entry where it's being smuggled in vehicles driven by U.S. citizens, according to data from Customs and Border Protection and the U.S. Sentencing Commission. It is not trafficked by illegal immigrants wading across the Rio Grande.

PolitiFact previously noted that drug smugglers prefer to traffic fentanyl and other illicit substances in cargo trucks to reduce risks of loss and waste.

This being the case, Vanda Felbab-Brown, a Brookings Institute senior foreign policy fellow who co-directs its series “The Opioid Crisis in America: Domestic and International Dimensions,” said the best tools the U.S. has to combat fentanyl trafficking of this type would be large, noninvasive cargo scanners, the likes of which only Congress can approve and fund. This, of course, would require agreement among Congress members, which does not exist – especially when it comes to border security.

However, there was a glimmer of hope recently when White House officials, Mayorkas and a bipartisan group of senators worked for months to come up with a $118 million border security package that would have included funding for those scanners and allocated money for additional Border Patrol agents.

But, alas, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) announced that the legislation would be "dead on arrival" if it reached his chamber.

So, while we're back to square one, it's only fair to set the record straight about migrants, the U.S. fentanyl crisis and those other crimes Taylor-Greene sees happening all around her.

Photo courtesy of US Customs and Border Protection