The woman who believes in Jewish lasers is behind the impeachment of Secretary Mayorkas

At the start of an election year, House Republicans grasp tenuously to Speaker Mike Johnson’s (R-La.) razor-slim majority. And once again they’re following the whims of the far-right to retain the gavel. Their newest plan: impeach Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas.

It’s the brainchild of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), who once posted on Facebook her belief that Jewish space lasers caused California wildfires. She defended the move against Mayorkas by stating, “Somebody needs to be impeached” and he’s “the lowest hanging fruit.” This is the logic behind impeaching a Cabinet member for only the second time in the history of the republic. Not high crimes and misdemeanors, but low-hanging fruit.

Do our border policies need commonsense strengthening and reform? I believe they do. But impeaching Mayorkas isn’t a policy, it’s a partisan strategy. Even former Republican Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff called this “a political stunt.” Instead of trying to work with Democrats to advance a reasonable compromise on border policy — as Senate Republicans are — their default position is to impeach a U.S. Cabinet secretary, based on the highly impeachable logic of Taylor Greene.

The strategy may mollify Greene; it may slightly strengthen Speaker Johnson’s grip on the gavel; it may help fundraise a few extra million dollars. But there are two long-term costs. First, the political fortunes of the 18 House Republicans in Biden-won districts. Swing voters know partisanship when they see one. They want more improvements, not more impeachments. Second, time spent on an ill-fated partisan impeachment squanders time that could be spent negotiating a compromise on comprehensive immigration and border safety policies.

There’s an irony here. Former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) had to condemn Greene for remarks equating pandemic safety measures with the treatment of Jews during the Holocaust. She publicly confused Yom Kippur, the most solemn day of the Jewish New Year, with Chanukah. She published a mock-up of President Biden using grotesque imagery from the Holocaust. All this, plus a contrived impeachment of Mayorkas, while our homeland security is buffeted by antisemitic crimes.

That’s the real damage of this impeachment. As our country faces a terrifying 337 percent increase in reported antisemitic incidents since the Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7, the Department of Homeland Security is doing critical work under the leadership of Secretary Mayorkas to protect Jewish Americans. As a Jewish Cabinet member and the son of a Holocaust survivor, Mayorkas has ensured that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) works aggressively to combat these threats.

DHS’s Nonprofit Security Grant Program provides religious organizations and other nonprofits with essential funding to build their security to protect against potential terrorist attack. In 2023 alone, under Mayorkas’s leadership DHS provided more than $305 million for the program, with $156 billion going towards more than a thousand different Jewish organizations — a powerful investment in keeping Jewish places of worship safe at a time when the risk to them is greater than it has been in generations.

Simultaneously, Mayorkas’s DHS has been in constant communication with Jewish community leaders. Following Oct. 7, DHS “held more than 60 direct community engagements” and “reached more than 65,000” Jewish Americans to listen to their concerns and provide them with the resources required to stay safe. In addition, DHS has Protective Security Advisors dispatched around the country, ready to offer their security expertise and guidance to Jewish organizations, and DHS has developed a comprehensive resource guide for faith-based communities.

This is government at its best — resolutely stepping up in the face of crisis to protect citizens from hate. Secretary Mayorkas has mobilized the full resources and powers of DHS to combat the dangers posed by rising antisemitism, and his actions are helping to keep Jewish Americans safe.

Yet instead of finding a partner to support these efforts in the House of Representatives, the Department of Homeland Security is facing a partisan onslaught pushed by one member of Congress whose antisemitic invective is troubling, even if it is bizarre. What may seem, from a distance, to be the usual partisan rancor of Washington is something much more dangerous — a reckless distraction for one of our government’s most critical agencies at a perilous time.

Steve Israel represented New York in the U.S. House of Representatives over eight terms and was chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee from 2011 to 2015. Follow him @RepSteveIsrael.