Texas: The Issue Is - Rep. Chip Roy says Mayorkas deserved to be impeached

Texas: The Issue Is - Rep. Chip Roy on immigration

Congressman Chip Roy (R-Austin) talks about the impeachment of Alejandro Mayorkas and the current situation at the border.

On their second attempt, Republicans successfully impeached DHS Sec. Alejandro Mayorkas over the border issue.

His removal from office is unlikely, but Texas Rep. Chip Roy said it was necessary to help fix the problem.

Rep. Roy: "Mayorkas deserves to be impeached because he violated his oath to the Constitution. He failed to take care to see that the laws are faithfully executed as the Constitution requires. He lied to me under oath when he said that they have operational control of the border. And he looked straight at the statute that I put in front of him, and he said, ‘Yes, we do,’ and then he later tried to back away from that."

Steven Dial: "Do you think there's even a likelihood, a real likelihood, that he will be removed from office in the Senate?"

Rep. Roy: "The American people also get to hear this. And every one of those members of the Senate are going to have to go answer for it. And if they're comfortable answering no, then they can go defend that. That's the way the system works. But impeachment, remember, it's like indicting somebody in a grand jury. Is that exactly the same? Let's be clear. This is political and it's legal, both. But it's like an indictment, you know, should you not indict just because you're afraid that the jury may not convict? That's not how it works, right? The House is supposed to present the articles of impeachment, send them over to the Senate and say, ‘This is why we think this guy did something worthy of trial and you guys go decide.’"

Dial: "Was the impeachment worth it? Will it be worth it? That doesn't fix the problem on the border, correct?"

Rep. Roy: "Well, impeaching Secretary Mayorkas won't immediately solve the problem of the border, no doubt. I've introduced legislation to do it. I fought to get H.R.2 passed. I'm doing everything I know how to use the power to force change. The administration refuses to listen. But the reason that impeaching Mayokas is important is he is the guy that has been heading this up. He is the face of it. He is the leading decision maker. He's the one that has made these calls. Right now, they're talking about, you know, releasing people from custody and shrinking ICE enforcement. They accuse Border Patrol agents of whipping Haitian migrants, which turned out to be blatantly false. And it was very clear that the secretary knew it was false based on all the information that's been presented. Those things matter. And it matters that the American people see us do our job and use the tools that the founders gave us to check the executive branch. That's what we did. That's why it's important."

Dial: "Let's go back to ICE. You mentioned that there's been reports of a $700 million budget shortfall considerations for reportedly reducing the number of beds for detainees, which would result in releasing people. Do you think if that does happen, if that goes through, is that an impeachable offense for the President in your eyes, or do you think this is still an Alejandro Mayorkas issue?"

Rep. Roy: "Well, look, the buck stops with the President of the United States. And, you know, if you can impeach Mayorkas for failure to take care that the laws be faithfully executed, you can impeach Joe Biden for failing to take care that the laws be faithfully executed. The President knows what he's doing. He's doing it intentionally, or he’s certainly allowing the people around him to make the decisions, but the buck stops with the President of the United States. He is the head of the executive branch. They're flouting the law, ignoring the law, failing to, you know, carry out the laws. And in doing so, they are endangering the American people, particularly Texans, particularly our children."

Dial: "President Trump did not want a border plan to be passed, or at least criticized the one that passed the Senate did not pass in the House. Do you think that's a good strategy heading into this election season of shooting down some type of compromise, instead of just trying to have a compromise?"

Rep. Roy: "Well, first of all, former President Trump didn't say that he didn't want to have legislation to fix the border. He said he didn't want to have that legislation to fix the border. That's a very material difference. The legislation that the Senate was putting forward was what it was going to embrace the mass migration policies of the Biden administration, which was going to cement into policy permanently some of those things, which means you're going to actually weaken a future president from being able to enforce the law. That makes no sense. And it was going to do so to set some sort of cap of around 5,000 a day. So it's kind of like saying, oh, well, you know, we used to try to enforce the law. When President Trump left, we were doing a pretty good job, 30,000 a month. Then we just said, okay, let's just ratchet up to 300,000 a month. So that's like saying, ‘Okay, I'm going to say I'm going to hit you in the head ten times, and then I'll tell you what, I'm going to offer you a great deal. It says I'll only hit you in the head five times.’ That's ridiculous. We don't want that. We want to make sure we're doing our job to secure the border. It should be zero. That's actually what our law calls for today. If you come here illegally, you're supposed to be detained. You're supposed to be fully detained. Adjudicate a claim if you claim some sort of asylum. You have a legitimate fear of persecution for your religious or political beliefs. And then if not, you're removed."