DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas at a House Homeland Security Committee hearing.Annabelle Gordon/CNP/ZUMA

On Wednesday, House Republicans renewed their plan to impeach Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. It is part of a long attempt to pin the failures—both real and imagined—of the immigration system in the United States on supposed Democratic incompetence by warring against Mayorkas. And it would be an extraordinary step. No cabinet secretary has been impeached in 150 years.

In a formal impeachment hearing against the first Latino and immigrant to lead DHS, Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mark Green (R-Tenn.) called Mayorkas the “architect of the devastation” at the southern border, in reference to record numbers of people come to the United States. Green said root causes of migration like push factors in countries of origin, climate change, and a broken immigration system were just excuses. He instead blamed Mayorkas for the “unprecedented crisis.”

Almost since the moment Mayorkas, a career public servant with extensive experience as a federal prosecutor and head of the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), began the job as head of DHS, Republicans have made him a target. They say that Mayorkas has willfully violated his oath of office by refusing to do his job of securing the border. Republicans claim Mayorkas has abused his office’s authority when using a discretionary parole program to allow certain groups........

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