New York Post by Steven Nelson 2/23/2023
An elated crowd inside Yuma’s city hall cheered Thursday for Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas’ potential impeachment after a local official accused him of lying about plans to close gaps in the US-Mexico border wall.
Jonathan Lines, a member of the Yuma County Board of Supervisors, testified at a House Judiciary Committee field hearing, which was boycotted by panel Democrats, that Mayorkas falsely said he’d address openings that are popular avenues for illegal immigration and drug smuggling.
“Has Secretary Mayorkas ever lied to you?” Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) asked Lines, who was one of three witnesses at the hearing.
“Yes,” Lines said to chuckles from a crowd of more than 200 in the hearing chamber.
“What was the substance of that lie?” asked Gaetz.
“The mayor and I had the opportunity to visit with Secretary Mayorkas and the Yuma [Border Patrol] sector chief … at sector headquarters almost a year ago,” Lines said. “And during that meeting he committed to, after reviewing the border both from the ground and the air, to specifically address ‘nine of the 11 Yuma gaps.'”
“And how many of those gaps have been addressed?” asked Gaetz.
“To date so far? None. We see infrastructure on two and yet they would not deter anyone,” Lines said.
“It seems as though it’s not a great mystery where the pressure points are where we have gaps in the wall and where we have recalcitrant [Native American] tribes,” Gaetz said — after touring two such gaps Wednesday night with fellow committee members.
Lines added he believes Mayorkas has “a lack of will” to follow through and seal up the wall — which was left unfinished at the end of the Trump administration. President Biden halted all wall construction in January 2021, but the White House said in July that it would close gaps near Yuma.
“We’ve followed up multiple times — as well as Yuma sector of Border Patrol staff — and with undersecretaries, and we were told time and time again that they were issuing contracts, that we would have it no later than June of last year, then no later than September, then no later than November. Every time it kept getting pushed out,” Lines said.
More:
https://nypost.com/2023/02/23/arizona-crowd-cheers-for-alejandro-mayorkas-impeachment-at-house-judiciary-hearing/
