WASHINGTON – On Tuesday, U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) spoke on the Senate floor about Department of Homeland Security Secretary Mayorkas’s complete dereliction of duty and failure to faithfully execute the law at our southern border. He called on Senator Schumer to allow the Senate to fulfill its constitutional duty and hold an impeachment trial. 

Sen. Johnson’s full speech can be found here. 

On Sec. Mayorkas’s dereliction of duty at the southern border

“President Biden and Secretary Mayorkas said that they're reversing all of Trump's border security provisions because they said it was inhumane. There's nothing humane about facilitating human, and sex, and drug trafficking. And, of course, the migrants coming into this country? It is true Venezuela is emptying their jails, their mental institutions. There are some bad people. There are some criminals coming into this country. And of course, we see evidence with these migrant crimes, horrific crimes, people who no longer are alive because of President Biden's open border policies, because of Secretary Mayorkas executing President Biden's open border policy. Now, I'm not a lawyer, I'm not a prosecutor, but I believe it's a crime to aid and abet other crimes. So from my standpoint, I think the House managers ought to be allowed to make their case. Again, they laid out a very compelling, a very compelling articles of impeachment today. It's a pretty simple case. It probably won't take that long of time for them to make their case, to present it for the Senate.”

On why the Senate must fulfill its constitutional duty and hold a trial

“Why won't Majority Leader Schumer allow the House managers to make their case? Why won't he allow the Senate to fulfill its constitutional duty to try impeachments? Listen, impeachments are not that regular. The least we can do is fulfill that constitutional duty and listen to the evidence. Allow the House managers to make their case. I think their case is overwhelmingly convincing. The repercussions of President Biden and Secretary Mayorkas's open border policy will be felt by Americans for years, if not decades to come. About the only thing Congress can do when a president or a member of the executive branch is not faithfully executing the laws when they're completely derelict in their duty, when their dereliction of duty, or the lack of faithfully executing the laws is resulting in the deaths of Americans. Again, the open border policy is resulting in the deaths of American citizens. It's resulting in young women being forced into sex trafficking trade. It's resulting in higher levels of fentanyl overdoses. That evidence needs to be heard. That case needs to be made. The Senate should hold a trial.”

On what led to Biden’s border crisis

“A couple of years after that unlawful order, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, President Obama faced his border crisis. He actually called it a humanitarian crisis when in May and June of 2014, they averaged about 2,200 encounters per day. 2,200. That seems like the good old days. That's that little bump in comparison to President Biden's crisis at the border… 

“President Trump did something about it. He enacted Migrant protection program. He instituted safe third country agreements with countries in Central America. He had to threaten the president of Mexico with tariffs. So the president of Mexico would cooperate with us in securing our border. And over the next 12 months, President Trump, by and large, secured the border to hit a low point in April of 2020, when a little more than 500 people per day were trying to come into this country illegally…

“[D]uring the presidential debate of 2020, every Democrat presidential candidate said they were going to end deportations and offer free health care. So, again, that's a signal the world listens to what elected officials, or potentially elected officials say, and they believe them…

“[P]eople started coming into this country again, assuming that President Biden was going to win the election and the border would be opened up. And of course, that's exactly what happened…

“President Biden came into office and with literally hundreds of executive actions, completely reversed President Trump's successful border security measures using that exact same presidential authority. All that deference. The point that's important to understand is President Biden wanted an open border. He caused this crisis. He could end it if he wanted to.”

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