Republicans eager to impeach a Biden administration official have rallied around a new phrase to justify the rarely used move, accusing President Biden and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas of \u201cdereliction of duty.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The term, borrowed from the military, allows a court martial to punish service members who fail to obey orders or carry out their duties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But experts say the GOP\u2019s basis for removing either man from office is an odd fit for impeachment, which requires demonstrating high crimes or misdemeanors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt sounds quasi-official \u2014 it has a sort of military ring to it. But it\u2019s not as though high crimes and misdemeanors and dereliction of duty go together. \u2026 It\u2019s not traditionally one of the impeachment concepts that you would find in the panoply of presidential mistakes,\u201d said Claire Finkelstein, a law professor at the University of Pennsylvania who specializes in national security law and democratic governance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThey\u2019re looking for a phrase that will kind of draw people in because it sounds semi-official, but will not actually require them to say something true and correct, like, \u2018The President has actually done such and such,\u2019\u201d she added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The impeachment resolution for Biden introduced by Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) accuses Biden of dereliction of duty and abuses of power in connection with how he has handled the border.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSince his first day in office, President Biden has trampled on the Constitution through his dereliction of duty under Article 2, to take care that the laws be faithfully executed. Instead of enforcing our immigration laws, he has lawlessly ignored them,\u201d Boebert said on the House floor this month before Republicans voted to refer the measure to committee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Each of the four impeachment resolutions targeting Mayorkas similarly accuses him of violating his oath of office by failing to enforce immigration laws.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The House Homeland Security Committee, which has been tasked with an investigation that would be used as the basis for any impeachment effort undertaken by House Judiciary, likewise kicked off its five-step plan with a phase dedicated to reviewing dereliction of duty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe blatant disregard for the Constitution of the United States, which states that the United States Congress passes the laws and the executive branch executes those laws, is just scratching the surface to the harm Secretary Mayorkas\u2019s dereliction of duty has done to our country,\u201d said Mark Green (R-Tenn.), the committee\u2019s chairman, in a press conference earlier this month kicking off the formal investigation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMayorkas\u2019s dereliction of duty has placed the safety of Americans\u2019 second to his own personal agenda,\u201d Green added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For Democrats, the GOP complaints over how the administration is applying \u2014 or failing to apply \u2014 the laws passed by Congress show the underlying dispute is a policy matter and therefore insufficient grounds for impeachment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cDereliction of duty is something that they have created out of whole cloth,\u201d said Rep. Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.), who served as a lead counsel to Democrats in the first impeachment of former President Trump before being elected to Congress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt has never been a grounds for impeachment. It is not a high crime and misdemeanor, and it is essentially arguing that they don\u2019t like the way that President Biden and Secretary Mayorkas have been handling their jobs, which, unfortunately for them, is the consequence of elections,\u201d Goldman said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Impeachment proceedings have been used four times for a president and once for a cabinet secretary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are different interpretations of what constitutes a high crime or misdemeanor, and Finkelstein said while impeachment can be used for \u201cbad acts that are not criminal, very often the impeachment charges could also be charged as crimes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cPresident Biden and Secretary Mayorkas haven\u2019t violated the law. And I suspect that members of the GOP and Congress know that full well, and so they don\u2019t want to use any term that suggests that there may be a legal violation here. And so they\u2019re using this sort of made-up term that has a quasi-military frame to sound vaguely official, but it\u2019s really nothing that corresponds to what we would understand from the history of impeachment as a high crime and misdemeanor as the framers would have conceived,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The dereliction of duty argument has taken a greater focus in recent weeks amid waning numbers of people arriving at the border. Earlier this year, many in the GOP argued that Mayorkas failed to follow a law that requires perfection at the border to achieve \u201coperational control.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Republicans have become more focused on arguing that Biden officials have violated immigration laws, particularly those dealing with detaining and releasing migrants that arrive at the border.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They also see a wave of fentanyl deaths as a failure to secure the border, though the vast majority of fentanyl that enters the U.S. is believed to come through ports of entry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Department of Homeland Security has argued Mayorkas has acted within his authority because the U.S. simply doesn\u2019t have the capacity to detain every person that seeks to enter the country, while parole laws allow DHS to permit some migrants to enter the U.S. while they await a determination in immigration court as to securing a more permanent legal status. The department has repeatedly encouraged Congress to take action to update immigration laws.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The White House, meanwhile, dismissed Boebert\u2019s resolution as \u201cstaging baseless political stunts.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhat you would need in order to move forward with impeachment is some finding that they have violated the law,\u201d Goldman said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSo the notion that he\u2019s violated his oath of office is just simply saying that he in their view is not following the law, but what it amounts to without any evidence \u2014 and they have none \u2014 is just a disagreement about how we\u2019re dealing with the influx of migrants into this country who are largely escaping completely devastated governments [and] catastrophic situations,\u201d he said, adding that the Biden administration has tried to deal with that \u201cin a humane way.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When asked about the legal underpinnings of dereliction of duty by The Hill, Green pointed to the statutes governing the military and the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe United States is not secure. His job is to secure the United States. He\u2019s failed. That\u2019s a dereliction of his duty,\u201d Green said, noting the oath he took when entering West Point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMayorkas\u2019s oath is the same, right? It\u2019s not to the geography of America. It\u2019s not to the flag. It\u2019s to the Constitution, the idea of America and to the way the Constitution orchestrates how the government is to work.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The roots in the Uniform Code of Military Justice could be problematic for making a case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cNeither Biden nor Mayorkas are subject to the UCMJ because they\u2019re both civilians,\u201d Finkelstein said. \u201cDereliction of duty as a military term does not apply to the Secretary of Homeland Security, nor does it apply to the president.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Impatience, however, is growing among some in the Republican Party.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lawmakers have introduced 11 impeachment resolutions for various Biden administration officials in the past two months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI would hope that it would be this year \u2014 and very soon,\u201d Boebert told reporters last week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Three DC businesses hit with explosive devices, Molotov cocktail
Thousands of Los Angeles-area hotel workers strike
Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), who served as an impeachment manager for Trump\u2019s first impeachment, dismissed the efforts as another example of Republicans \u201cdragging down the institution of Congress.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI am concerned that as they always do, they use a process that is properly applied as a precedent to abuse the process. But this is all about ingratiating yourself among MAGA members and Trump followers and it\u2019s disgraceful,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s consuming the time of Congress to keep going through these right-wing exercises designed to gain Trump\u2019s favor.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n