The attempt to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas is "unconstitutional," top DHS lawyers wrote in a letter to congressmen encouraging them to vote against the resolution, The Hill reported on Tuesday.
The letter, which was entered into the record of the House Rules Committee as it forwarded the impeachment resolution to the House floor on Tuesday, harshly criticizes the Republican rationale behind the impeachment effort.
In addition to declaring that the impeachment articles lack "any basis in the Constitution," the 38-page letter states that the move "represents a dramatic departure from over two centuries of established understanding and precedent about the meaning of the Impeachment Clause of the Constitution and the proper exercise of that extraordinary tool."
The letter details the DHS's basic claim that Mayorkas has carried out the Biden administration's immigration policy and has not violated any laws, stating that the articles of impeachment are "nothing more than a simple list of criticisms of the policies of the current administration. These assertions do not meet the Constitutional standard for impeachment. The secretary has followed the law in good faith in each and every action that the resolution cites as a purported ground for impeachment, whether related to asylum, detention, removals, parole processes, or any others."