Mike Johnson warns bipartisan border deal could be 'dead on arrival', promises quick Mayorkas impeachment

WASHINGTON – House Speaker Mike Johnson, warned that a Senate bipartisan border and immigration deal is likely “dead on arrival” in the House, and promised a vote to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas “as soon as possible” when Congress meets next week.

In a letter sent to House Republicans on Friday morning obtained by USA TODAY, Johnson referred to leaks surrounding the fraught Senate negotiations and wrote that “if rumors about the contents of the draft proposal are true, it would have been dead on arrival in the House anyway.”

Johnson reiterated the Democratic-controlled Senate should take up the House’s strict and hardline border and migrant policy bill passed last year, referred to as H.R. 2. He said the measure already “contains the core legislative reforms that are necessary to actually compel the Biden Administration to resolve the border catastrophe.”

But that bill has long been considered to have no chance passing the Senate. No Democrats supported the measure in the House, and any package that addresses immigration will ultimately have to be bipartisan to pass in a divided Congress.

Senate negotiators have also dismissed rumors about what the final package will look like, considering that talks on the issue have been in flux ever since they began four months ago. 

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House Republicans heading into the 2024 elections are aiming at making border security and immigration a central focus as they defend and expand their razor-thin majority. In January, the GOP-led House Homeland Security formally began impeachment proceedings against Mayorkas and is scheduled to vote on articles of impeachment against the secretary on Jan. 30. 

After the committee finishes its work, Johnson said, “a vote on the floor will be held as soon as possible thereafter.”

Johnson has also argued Biden already possesses executive powers to address the crisis at the southern border, writing in the letter he can “start with the stroke of a pen.”

White House spokesperson Ian Sams derided the letter and Johnson’s vow to impeach Mayorkas, calling it “totally baseless spin as House (Republicans) refuse to even engage on bipartisan border solutions,” in a post on X, formerly Twitter.