Sen. Cruz, Graham warn DHS Secretary Mayorkas of impeachment over border crisis

Republican Senators Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Ted Cruz, R-Texas, sent a message to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Mayorkas telling him that they have “grounds for impeachment” if he does not deal with the border crisis.

The senators sent a letter to Mayorkas, which was exclusively obtained by Fox News Digital, that uses data by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to show that the crisis at the southern border has deteriorated since Mayorkas took office.

"This is a gross dereliction of duty and, if not corrected swiftly, could provide grounds for impeachment," the senators wrote in the letter.

"Your failure to faithfully enforce this nation’s immigration laws and willful blindness to the very real humanitarian crisis at our southern border amounts to a gross dereliction of duty and a violation of your oath of office," the senators continued.

“Historically high levels of illegal immigration and illicit drug trafficking demonstrate that our southern border is open for every kind of public health and national security threat imaginable,” they added.

According to the CBP data cited by the senators, there have been over 4.4 million illegal crossings, 3.5 million apprehensions, and at least 900,000 migrants that evaded apprehension since Mayorkas assumed office 19 months ago.

“These astronomically high numbers are due in no small part to the political decision to rescind a number of President Trump’s policies that were stemming the flow of illegal aliens and illicit drugs across the southern border,” the senators wrote.

Apart from the record-breaking number of undocumented migrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border, the border crisis is worsening the opioid epidemic in the nation, the senators added.

In Fiscal Year 2022, CBP agents seized 12,861 pounds of fentanyl, a 219% increase over 2020. Around 2,287 pounds of the deadly drug were seized last month alone, enough to kill over 500 million people.

“These failures cannot go unaddressed, and your actions cannot be unaccounted for. The American people deserve better,” the senators said.