In March, U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales was censured by the Republican Party of Texas, in part for failing to support border security legislation.
Now, with several Republican candidates announcing primary challenges against him, he is teaming up with U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R–GA) in an attempt to impeach U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
Gonzales says his work with Greene on the resolution started after he got news of an incident in Zavala County last week where eight people were killed as a suspected human smuggler attempted to evade police. Two of the victims killed in the head-on collision were from Greene’s district in Georgia.
“So I call Marjorie and she’s like, ‘holy smokes.’ And at that time she says ‘I’ve got this resolution on the floor to impeach Mayorkas, what do you think?’” Gonzales recounted to Texas Scorecard. “I said now is as good as time as ever, because this is literally every single week in my district, along the border.”
“It’s very clear Mayorkas has failed to do his job,” he added.
In January of this year, Gonzales was noncommittal on the question of impeaching Mayorkas. He told Texas Scorecard he was never against impeachment, but wanted to see hearings take place first.
I said I’m no lawyer, but we probably should have hearings before we impeach somebody. Well, we’ve already had hearings. We’ve had four phases of essentially hearings for Mayorkas on this thing. And the facts are clear that Biden’s border policies have caused Americans to die. And all we have to do is re-implement the Trump policies that worked.
When asked about the timing of his push for Mayorkas’ impeachment, given the Texas GOP’s censure and candidates challenging him in the Republican primary, Gonzales denied changing his position for the election.
The party’s censure resolution cites his failure to support the the Border Safety and Security Act of 2023, which called for Mayorkas to prevent illegal aliens from entering the country. Specifically, Gonzales took issue with a proposal from U.S. Rep. Chip Roy (R–TX) to crack down on asylum claims.
“Essentially, as we were baking the pie, Chip Roy actually withdrew that amendment. So we never, we never voted on it and never got to vote. I never voted against it, or anything like that,” Gonzales explained.
“I don’t view it as I having changed my position one bit,” he added. “Now, maybe the narrative or some of the way it’s spawned is a different story. But I’m of the mindset of this is Americans are dying. Now’s the time no more talk. No more fancy speeches, no more sternly written letters.”
Gonzales also says the state of Texas needs to do more to fight back in the Biden administration’s absence.
“I think one thing has been very clear. No matter how much we push here in Washington, the Biden administration has abandoned Texas,” said Gonzales. “Are we going to just wait indefinitely for the Biden administration to finally get off dead center and do something? That’s not the Texas way. I think whether whether Biden does something or not Texas has to do something.”
The resolution to impeach Mayorkas, meanwhile, hit a roadblock Monday night in the House, after a motion to fast-track a vote was voted down 209-201, with eight Republicans joining Democrats in sending the resolution through the normal committee process.
