The House has officially approved a measure to “defund” Alejandro Mayorkas, personally. An amendment sponsored by Arizona’s Andy Biggs forbids the Department of Homeland Security from funding his salary. The entire appropriations package has little chance of making it through the Senate without major changes but it’s still a symbolic victory.
Mayorkas gets no pay
On Wednesday, June 26, the House voted to cancel the salary of Alejandro Mayorkas. We the People aren’t going to pay him to destroy America. It’s legal and official but probably won’t stick. There are enough closet Democrat RINOs in the Senate to rip the provision back out. Then again, you never know.
Democrats had their cage seriously rattled Thursday night, when Joe Biden proved to the world he’s unfit to hold office now, much less after an election.
The real reason behind the amendment is as an opportunity for Republicans “to include their priorities in the legislation.” It puts them “on stronger footing for government funding negotiations with the Senate down the road.” Mayorkas is not popular with Republicans in Congress.
My amendment to the DHS Appropriations Act defunding Alejandro Mayorkas’s salary was adopted by the House earlier this week.
Here are some other conservative wins in the bill that was passed out of the House today: pic.twitter.com/0DPhrVk1m3
— Rep Andy Biggs (@RepAndyBiggsAZ) June 29, 2024
The push to zero out his paycheck “comes after the House voted to impeach the DHS secretary in February, making him the first Cabinet official to be penalized since the 1870s.” The Senate failed to convict but he was still impeached.
Mayorkas, Biggs declared on social media, “doesn’t deserve a single penny from American taxpayers.” Georgia’s outspoken far-right lawmaker, Marjorie Taylor Greene, introduced a similar measure but her version went down in flames. She wanted to cut the secretary’s salary to $1.
Both efforts were drafted under the “Holman rule, which allows lawmakers to reduce the salaries of specific federal employees in appropriations bills.” They can do it but nobody can remember the last time it’s been used.
Money to finish border wall
Overall, it appears that DHS does get the $3 billion raise they were looking for, only congress put a bunch of restrictions on how it’s to be spent.
For starters, $600 million is specifically earmarked “to fund completion of former President Trump’s border wall.” Mayorkas or his replacement can’t spend a single dime on “abortion care” or “transgender health care for noncitizens detained in ICE custody.”
Chip Roy added a provision which prohibits “funds from being used to implement policies that would keep asylum seekers in Texas while their claims are being processed.”
Today, I successfully passed an amendment to cut $10 million in taxpayer dollars from the budget of DHS Secretary Mayorkas. He is the chief enabler of human trafficking in America, and he should not have his salary funded by hardworking Americans. pic.twitter.com/CvTuIGtNx8
— Rep. Andy Ogles (@RepOgles) June 26, 2024
Mayorkas has been whining that Congress won’t give him the money to secure the border. Well, he just got “$1.2 billion for new ICE detention beds and for deportation costs.” Money that can only be spent on those things.
Congressman Josh Brecheen issued a statement. He was one of those who voted for the Biggs amendment to defund Mayorkas.
“Under President Trump, we had 45-year lows of illegal immigration, while under President Biden we have seen record highs as more than nine million illegal aliens have invaded our nation under his watch. While not perfect, this legislation is a positive first step to get back to President Trump’s successful immigration policies and end the Biden border crisis.“
