By The newspaper
Jul 24, 2023, 17:59 PM EDT
A new chapter arises between the Republican governments and the administration of President Joe Biden on immigration issues: Congress is asked to stop paying the salary of the Secretary of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas.
The petition was from the Florida Attorney General, Ashley Moody, who affirmed on Monday that she had sent the petition to congressmen, because Mayorkas would have breached her duty at the border in immigration matters.
Moody recalled that Judge Kent Wetherell, who is leading a lawsuit between the Florida government and the Biden Administration, has criticized Mayorkas’ actions for “willfully and intentionally ignoring the clear demands of United States immigration law.”
Moody’s accused him of “systematically” dismantling security on the border with Mexico, both by “requesting fewer resources” to protect it and by “initiating new programs outside of federal law to allow and encourage more illegal immigration.”
“His title sums up his responsibility – to secure our homeland – and he has done the opposite on purpose. I call on Congress to reduce his salary to zero until he fulfills his oath to the American people,” Moody said in a statement.
In her letter to congressional leaders, Attorney General Moody says that since her confirmation in office, Mayorkas has “sneered at the clear order of Congress to the detriment of my constituents and this nation.”
“Instead of detaining criminal aliens and illegal border crossers as required by law, Secretary Mayorkas has released millions of these aliens,” he asserts.
“Surprisingly” Mayorkas, when asked in court about those releases, blamed Congress, which, according to Moody, he accuses of not allocating enough funds to cover the necessary detention centers.
However, the letter adds, it is Mayorkas who is requesting that funding for detention centers be reduced, arguing that this “will not impede the ability of ICE (the immigration agency) to capture, detain, and remove non-citizens who pose a threat to national security, border security, and public safety.”
In addition to zeroing Mayorkas’ salary, the Florida attorney general has asked Congress to provide additional funding for border security, appropriate money to support state cooperation programs, provide “a cause of action for states to sue Secretary Mayorkas” and enforce federal immigration law.
Attorney General Moody concludes the letter with a call to action.
“Regardless of whether you agree with current immigration laws, they are the law of the land and Secretary Mayorkas has sworn to uphold them. Congress, more than any other branch of government, is in a unique position to defend the duly enacted laws of this country when the Executive Branch chooses to ignore them.”
The governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis, permanently questions the immigration policy of the Biden Administration, even before the courts, and as a candidate for the Republican primaries, he has made the fight against illegal immigration his battle horse.
Since July 1, a new immigration law promoted by DeSantis has been in force in Florida, which is considered the toughest in the country against undocumented immigrants and has already been the subject of a lawsuit filed by civil organizations.
Florida also has an immigrant “relocation” program that allows it to use public money to send aliens without permits from the Texas border to other more tolerant states, such as California and Pennsylvania, and which is also being challenged in court.
With information from EFE
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