WASHINGTON — Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., on Thursday introduced articles of impeachment against President Joe Biden over his handling of migrant crossings along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Greene accused Biden of abusing his power by “endangering the security of the United States and thwarting the will of Congress,” according to the articles.
“Joe Biden has deliberately compromised our national security by refusing to enforce immigration laws and secure our border, allowed approximately 6 million illegals from over 160 countries to invade our country, deprived border patrol of the necessary resources and policies sufficient to protect our country, and his administration has willfully refused to maintain operational control as required by law,” Greene said in a statement.
The first of the three articles of impeachment alleged that Biden’s actions have led to an increase in “illegal aliens and illegal narcotics, including deadly fentanyl, entering the United States.” It also claimed that his administration has “willfully violated” the law “by releasing illegal aliens into the interior of the United States.”
The Covid-era border policy, as Title 42, was put into effect by the Trump administration in 2020 and continued into the Biden administration, until it expired earlier this month. It allowed the federal government to expedite expelling migrants without asylum hearings to alleviate the domestic spread of the virus.
Republicans have criticized the Biden administration for its decision to end the restriction. But while it was expected that the lifting of Title 42 would cause a surge in crossings, the number of migrants crossing the southern border has declined since the policy expired last week.
House Republicans do not have the votes to impeach Biden. Several Republicans had introduced impeachment articles against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas earlier this year with similar allegations and there has been no movement on those measures.
The White House strongly condemned Greene on Thursday, calling her articles of impeachment “a shameless sideshow political stunt.”
“Is there a bigger example of a shameless sideshow political stunt than a trolling impeachment attack by one of the most extreme MAGA members in Congress over ‘national security’ while she actively demands to defund the FBI and even said she ‘would’ve been armed’ and ‘would have won’ the January 6 insurrection if only she’d been in charge of it?” Ian Sams, White House spokesperson for oversight and investigations, said in a statement.
He added, “The President is focused on what’s important to the American people, like preventing House Republicans’ default that would crash the economy and protecting investments that are creating American manufacturing jobs, not silly political attacks.”
Greene’s second impeachment article claims that Biden had enacted policies that endangered Americans by “allowing illegal aliens who had tested positive for COVID-19 to enter the country and infect American citizens.” It said that the Department of Homeland Security “released and transported hundreds of thousands of aliens into the interior of the United States without properly screening the aliens for COVID-19.”
Her third impeachment article alleged that Biden has “created a national security crisis and is endangering the lives of everyday Americans with his open border policies.” Biden and DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas have reiterated that the border is not open and have discouraged migrants from coming to the U.S.
Greene had spread numerous conspiracy theories about Covid throughout the pandemic, lashing out at policies put in place to help mitigate the spread of the disease. She also boasted several times about never having received a Covid-19 vaccine, and was suspended from Twitter for a week in 2021 after she shared misleading information about vaccines on the platform.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., also dismissed Greene’s efforts.
“I think it’s an incredible contrast that on Wednesday, extreme MAGA Republicans in the House defend, cuddle, and continue to play footsie with serial fraudster George Santos,” Jeffries said at a press conference on Thursday. “And on Thursday, they want to impeach the president of the United States of America, the FBI director, who was appointed by a Republican president, and the homeland security secretary.”
These are the first impeachment articles filed against Biden since House Republicans took the majority in January. Several Republicans, including Greene, previously introduced various articles of impeachment against him in his first two years in office when Democrats controlled the lower chamber.
Only three presidents have been impeached: Presidents Andrew Johnson in 1868, Bill Clinton in 1998 and Donald Trump, both in 2019 and 2021.