Marshall offers no-confidence motion in U.S. Senate against homeland security secretary

TOPEKA — Three Republicans in the Kansas congressional delegation said the secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security should be held accountable for the flood of border crossings of undocumented immigrants and the trafficking of fentanyl contributing to a drug overdose crisis.

On Tuesday, U.S. Sen. Roger Marshall urged Senate colleagues to vote for a resolution expressing lack of confidence in DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. The senator said the Senate had to act because Mayorkas engaged in “dereliction of duty” while leading the agency. Democrats in the Senate blocked the measure.

“Time and time again, Secretary Mayorkas has failed to do his most basic job — protect the homeland,” Marshall said. “He is derelict in his duties and complicit in Joe Biden’s open borders agenda. Failing to secure our southern border has created a historic national security crisis.”

Some Republicans in the U.S. Senate have been negotiating with Mayorkas on a plan to crack down on migration along the U.S. border with Mexico, while the GOP-led U.S. House has been working to prepare articles of impeachment against Mayorkas.

U.S. Rep. Tracey Mann of the large 1st District and U.S. Rep. Ron Estes of the 4th District have been critical of Mayorkas. Mann said he welcomed the House Homeland Security Committee’s scheduled hearing Wednesday on the Cabinet secretary’s compliance with federal law on immigration.

“While I do not serve on this committee, I am committed to holding Secretary Mayorkas accountable for his failed leadership,” Mann said.

Estes joined a group of Republicans who recently toured border facilities to bring attention to Republicans’ desire for Biden to reinstate former President Donald Trump’s “remain in Mexico policy.” GOP lawmakers have sought to pivot back to several Trump administration deportation and detention programs.

Mayorkas was confirmed by the U.S. Senate in February 2021 on a vote of 56-43, with Marshall and U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kansas, opposed to his confirmation. In 2020, Biden said he nominated Mayorkas because he was an experienced leader hailed by Republicans and Democrats. Biden also said the Trump administration had engaged in years of “chaos, dysfunction and absolutely cruelty” at DHS.

In November 2023, a U.S. House motion to impeach Mayorkas was filed. It was deflected when the House voted 209-201 to refer the resolution to the House Homeland Security Committee. Mann, Estes and U.S. Rep. Jake LaTurner, a Republican serving the 2nd District, voted against the referral. Democratic U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids of the 3rd District in the Kansas City area voted to send it to the committee.

In the Senate, Marshall said the no-confidence resolution would serve as a proper introduction to the House’s hearings on Mayorkas.

“For the past three years,” Marshall said, “Americans have witnessed the negligence and gross mismanagement of our southern border unfold — each day worse than the day before.”

Marshall, a physician, said 300 residents of the United States died each day from consumption of drugs tainted by fentanyl and that much of it came across the Mexico border. He asserted Mayorkas refused to enforce federal immigration law capable of slowing the influx of immigrants.

“The Biden Administration has, for all practical purposes, erased our border and embraced a structure of complete lawlessness,” the Kansas senator said. “It is clear that DHS Secretary Mayorkas has zero operational control of our border.”