If Speaker Kevin McCarthy cannot pull his caucus together for this vote, then it doesn’t matter what the House GOP does for the rest of the 118th Congress. Even if it ends up being simply an on-the-record vote on the incompetence of DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, shouldn’t that vote happen?

And for crying out loud, why WOULDN’T the House GOP be unified for this vote???

Republicans don’t have the votes to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, according to Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, a key lawmaker pushing the effort.”

Mr. Gaetz and Republican colleagues have been trying to lay the case for impeachment in early hearings on the chaos at the southern border. But he said Monday that they are far from getting there.”

“We don’t have the votes,” he said.”

Pressed on whether they can get there, he said, “I don’t think we’re close to having the votes.”

The assessment is a significant setback for Mr. Mayorkas’ opponents, who accuse him of lying, failing to follow his oath of office and overseeing an unprecedented breakdown at the border.”

This blog has already catalogued the many, many problems and failures of Secretary Mayorkas. Border security is a mess, fentanyl keeps coming across that same border, people are walking in and disappearing, and now even the Biden administration has realized that there is a growing problem with… wait for it… illegal alien child labor in THIS country.

The Department of Labor, which investigates illegal child labor cases, said it had recorded a 70% increase in the number of children illegally employed by companies over the past five years. In the government’s 2022 fiscal year, the department found that 3,800 children had been employed by more than 800 companies in violation of child labor laws. Officials are currently overseeing over 600 probes into potential child labor exploitation.”

The increase in unlawful child labor cases has come as the number of migrant minors entering U.S. border custody without their parents has reached record levels. In fiscal year 2022, 130,000 unaccompanied children were processed by U.S. officials along the southern border, an all-time high, federal statistics show.”

Under a 2008 law designed to prevent child trafficking, U.S. border officials are required to quickly transfer unaccompanied children who are not from Mexico to the Department of Health and Human Services, which operates a network of shelters to house them. Federal law bars the quick deportation of these minors.”

HHS is mandated by law to house unaccompanied children until it can place them with sponsors, who are typically family members in the U.S. These children face deportation proceedings unless they apply for and receive permanent legal status, such as asylum or special visas for abused, neglected or abandoned youth.”

After being released from federal custody, migrant children, most of whom are teenagers, often end up working grueling and dangerous jobs in factories, meat plants and construction sites that violate federal child labor laws, which severely restrict the type of physical work minors can do.”

Recent investigations by The New York Times and Reuters have found migrant children as young as 12 working in chicken plants and slaughterhouses, making car parts, packaging well-known snacks, operating hazardous machinery and constructing roofs, all in violation of child labor laws.”

Again, this problem would not be nearly as exacerbated IF THE BORDER WAS CLOSED. But this is what you get with a porous border, unaccompanied minors sent over that same border because they WON’T be sent back, and family or “sponsors” who see the child as another pair of hands for a paycheck. Not to mention the companies who are clearly turning a blind eye to federal child labor laws. So yes, slap them with all the fines and penalties you want, but this is yet another tide that can’t be stemmed until the border is secured. And THAT falls squarely on Mayorkas.

So where is the political will from the House GOP to hold a vote? Where is the effort to whip up the votes to impeach Mayorkas, who still thinks he’s done nothing to be impeached over? Where ARE the votes? Articles of impeachment were filed by Representative Pat Fallon (R-TX) in January – what’s the hold up?

This has to fall squarely on Kevin McCarthy. Impeachment wasn’t just being talked about by rank-and-file Republicans, but by the Speaker himself AFTER the 2022 election.

.@GOPLeader Kevin McCarthy at Southern Border: "I am calling on the Secretary to resign…If Secretary Mayorkas does not resign House Republicans will investigate every order, every action and every failure will determine whether we can begin impeachment inquiry." pic.twitter.com/hRzkXKx97N

— CSPAN (@cspan) November 22, 2022

It’s all well and good to talk a big game when you haven’t got the gavel in your hands yet, but now McCarthy DOES hold the Speaker’s gavel. Gaetz, who is part of the Freedom Caucus (as we all know after the entire Speaker voting circus) and is no close ally of McCarthy, says that the House GOP doesn’t have the votes, but isn’t pointing any fingers… yet.

Speaker McCarthy needs to get the House GOP in order. If they can’t stand together for impeaching the incompetent Mayorkas, then what WILL they stand together for? House Republican leadership needs to get their entire caucus together, and McCarthy needs to inform them that they’re going to have this vote. Yes, it’s likely the Senate would acquit Mayorkas. SO WHAT. Get everyone on the record, Democrat and Republican alike. The GOP cannot bitch and moan about the border, and then NOT proceed with the impeachment of Mayorkas. And if McCarthy can’t pull them together, then what was the point of winning the House in the first place?

Featured image: DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas via US Dept of Homeland Security on Wikimedia Commons, cropped and modified, public domain