- A New Yorker article reveals the White House intentionally directed Mayorkas to not called the surge at the southern border a crisis
- Led to the 2021 fumble where Mayorkas called it a 'challenge at the border'
- Report notes that Biden's Chief of Staff Ron Klain floated firing Mayorkas as a way to reset the messaging on handling of the southern border
A new report Saturday includes officials detailing how the White House tried to stop the Homeland Security Secretary from calling the migration surge over the southern border a 'crisis.'
And three officials, according to the New Yorker report, claim it was floated in late spring 2023 that Mayorkas be fired to help reset the administration's messaging over the southern border.
Meanwhile, the Republican-controlled House finally voted – by a margin of just one vote – to impeach Mayorkas. But the Democrat-led Senate is likely to acquit him.
This all comes amid record-breaking illegal immigration and migration across the southern border after Biden instructed Mayorkas to loosen Trump-era restrictions upon entering office in 2021.
In December 2023, the U.S. saw the largest-ever single day apprehension record with Customs and Border Protection coming in contact with 301,983 migrants crossing the southern border into the U.S.
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Republicans blame Biden's lax policies for this surge, and claim Mayorkas is at fault as well for a dereliction of duty at the southern border and lying to the American people about the severity of the crisis.
During a March 2021 press conference, a reporter asked Mayorkas outright if there was a 'crisis at the border,' to which the DHS Secretary replied: 'The answer is no. I think there is a challenge at the border that we are managing.'
This answer, according to the New Yorker article, was in accordance with White House instructions for Mayorkas to avoid using the word 'crisis' in his public appearances when discussing immigration.
It was obvious to most Americans and lawmakers alike that there was crisis with thousands of asylum-seekers arriving every day. And Mayorkas' wording at the time stuck even his most staunch defenders as awkward.
'I refuse to engage on battles of diction,' Mayorkas told The New Yorker when reached about his evasion of using the word 'crisis' at the time.
Additionally, three administration officials said that during a White House meeting last spring, Biden's Chief of Staff Ron Klain brought up potentially firing Mayorkas.
It was proposed, according to the officials, as a way to reset the narrative on the southern border and border security overall.
But one former official questioned who could possibly replace Mayorkas, who had the most experience on the issue.
'I never suggested firing Secretary Mayorkas,' Klain insisted to the New Yorker. 'I consider Ali a friend and a dedicated public servant.'
House Speaker Mike Johnson brought a floor vote to impeach Mayorkas last week, which was ultimately successful.
But now the issue goes to the Senate, which requires a two-thirds vote to convict and remove a secretary official from office.
Mayorkas was the first cabinet official to be impeached in nearly 150 years – and only the second to ever face that fate.
White House tried to stop Mayorkas calling migration a 'crisis'
Alejandro Mayorkas is one of Republicans most loathed members of President Joe Biden's administration - becoming last week only the second-ever cabinet secretary impeached in U.S. history.
