You can tell what a good idea it is to impeach Homeland Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, just by all the screeching leftists who oppose the idea. MSNBC and their brethren have devoted endless hours to proclaiming there is no evidence on which to base his removal. Except, of course, for the millions of illegals and tons of fentanyl welcomed through our borders without objection.

What we have is a grotesque dereliction of duty by the secretary (who for some odd reason is the spitting image of the Japanese anime character Krillin) and under the terms of Article I he can be impeached and removed for “high crimes and misdemeanors.”

This means, as Alexander Hamilton explained, in Federalist No. 65: “those offences which proceed from the misconduct of public men, or, in other words, from the abuse or violation of some public trust. They are of a nature which may with peculiar propriety be denominated political, as they relate chiefly to injuries done immediately to the society itself.”

The House impeachment articles state ad nauseum Mayorkas’ constant refusal to do his job or follow dozens of laws he is obliged to enforce. To a certain extent, officers of the executive department have flexibility in carrying out their duties, but they cannot simply refuse to do them at all. Any more than officials of the Treasury department could ignore random visitors entering their premises and walking off with bags of money.

Democrats trot out the oft-mistaken Jonathan Turley to somehow defend Mayorkas, saying “impeachment is not for being a bad Cabinet member or even a bad person.” But that misses the point. High-crimes-and-misdemeanors is an ancient legal phrase; not about partisan disagreements or simple incompetence, but actual abuse of office, as Hamilton says. It may or may not be violative of a particular criminal statute, but it is in some way political, and always a type of “bad faith” misuse of public office.

So Bill Clinton’s scandals were really high crimes and misdemeanors- Perjurious testimony before a federal investigation and interference with that investigation. But Donald Trump’s Ukraine phone call was the opposite, someone actually trying to do his job and enforce the law. Looking back at it, if anything, you could criticize Trump for not being tougher on Zelenskyy and wanting more answers on the crooked dealings in that country and payments to the Biden crime family. 

Impeachment and removal is, of course, a very rare occurrence in the United States. In Britain it has fallen into disuse. That’s for a variety of reasons; in America, you need a large political consensus to vote for removal, and the President’s party usually can defeat it if they wish, merely to save themselves partisan embarrassment. Most likely, Democrats in Congress will in the end keep Mayorkas from being removed from office.

But Republicans should go ahead and attempt it anyway. Mayorkas’ conduct has been disgraceful, and he richly deserves whatever obloquy can be brought down on him.

Frank Friday is an attorney in Louisville, KY.

Image: Department of Homeland Security