AILA Executive Committee Shares Open Letter Regarding Efforts to Impeach Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas

Washington, DC – As the House Republican majority moves forward with their efforts to impeach the Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas, the Executive Committee of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) shared the following open letter:

“Instead of focusing on the real challenges facing our country, House Republicans have turned their focus to impeaching the Secretary of Homeland Security. Through this impeachment effort House Republicans have accused Secretary Mayorkas of ”breach of public trust,” when in reality his exercise of authority and implementation of policy is in line with what Cabinet Secretaries have done throughout our history. While imperfect, in no way does anything he has been accused of rise to a ‘high crime or misdemeanor’ and countless voices have explained why, including constitutional law scholars, Republican thought leaders, and the Wall Street Journal editorial board.

Immigration policies are complex. Over his tenure, there have been many issues on which AILA has had significant differences of opinion from Secretary Mayorkas and the Biden Administration. However, disagreement on policy is not grounds for impeachment. In fact, impeachment is a distraction. Beyond this specific distraction, we feel strongly that weaponizing the impeachment process is both unconstitutional and dangerous for the future of a functioning government. Instead, the AILA Executive Committee believes that both the House and the Senate should be working with the Administration to repair this broken immigration system.

Alejandro Mayorkas has spent more than 30 years in public service and is an expert in immigration law and policy who is clearly committed to improving the immigration system. We urge Congress to work in a bipartisan manner to tackle the current problems at the border as well as the shortcomings in America’s immigration laws that hamper our economy. In this way, they could use their power to accomplish what the American people elected them to do: ensure America’s immigration and enforcement systems serve our common future and shared prosperity.”