“To instead allow impeachments of cabinet officials over political disagreements would jeopardize our national security; make Cabinet-level positions more difficult to fill under future administrations; and undermine the ability of future officials to fulfill their vital missions,” they wrote in the letter obtained by The Washington Post.
The Department of Homeland Security secretary “is responsible for much more than managing our immigration system,” they argued. “Impeaching Secretary Mayorkas could undermine the mission for which the Department was created — preventing terrorism — as well as our cybersecurity, aviation security, maritime security, our response to natural disasters, and the protection of our national leaders, among many other things.”
The House Homeland Security Committee last week advanced two articles of impeachment against Mayorkas, accusing him of a breach of the public trust and “willful and systemic refusal to comply with the law.”
Napolitano, Johnson and Chertoff make up almost half of the former homeland security secretaries who have held the office since its inception in 2003, in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. The letter is the latest in a line of expert and intraparty concerns raised about the misuse of the impeachment process against Mayorkas, arguing that it is being used as a political cudgel. The three secretaries urged Johnson to table the impeachment and work with the Senate to advance a bipartisan border security bill.
“Impeaching Secretary Mayorkas solves nothing and leaves our outdated immigration system exactly where it is now — broken,” they wrote.
Republicans have filed articles of impeachment against a slate of Biden administration officials since President Biden took office, but they have largely struggled to identify evidence that meets the constitutional bar of “high crimes and misdemeanors.” Still, they are scheduled to vote on impeaching Mayorkas later Tuesday. If they succeed, Mayorkas would be the first sitting Cabinet member to be impeached in U.S. history.
A spokesperson for Johnson did not immediately respond to request for comment.
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