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Nov. 9 (UPI) -- Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga, moved Thursday to force a vote on impeaching Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, a day after a fiery crash in Texas involving migrants killed 8 people. Greene said in a social media post Wednesday that two of the people killed in the head-on collision were her constituents and "were murdered by a human smuggler with a vehicle full of illegal aliens."
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The Texas Department of Public Safety said Wednesday that 8 people were killed when a Honda passenger vehicle with 6 Hondurans inside crossed the double yellow lines on U.S. Highway 57 about 83 miles southwest of San Antonio to pass an 18-wheeler while evading police and collided with an SUV with two people inside.
Greene implied that Mayorkas bears the responsibility for the accident and other migrant-related deaths for failing to secure the southern U.S. border.
"This is unacceptable!" Green continued in her social media post. "Alejandro Mayorkas is derelict of his duty to secure our Southern border and my constituents are dying!!"
The people who were killed in the SUV were from Greene's district in Georgia, she said. Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-Tex. says the accident, in rural Zavala county, happened in his district. He offered support for Greene's resolution.
"We're sick of the Biden administration's refusal to crack down on border security," Gonzales wrote in a statement.
"We're tired of feeling unsafe in our communities and we're fed up with a Washington establishment that uses the border as a political tool," he added.
Greene's privileged resolution requires swift action and accuses Mayorkas of "willful admittance of border crossers" and says he has a duty to protect the U.S. from an "invasion."
A privileged resolution forces leadership to take action on the measure within two legislative days. The House left Washington on Thursday and is scheduled to reconvene Monday evening.
This will be among the first of several weighty decisions for newly minted House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La. House leaders can call for a floor vote on the resolution, table it, or send it to committee, each of which can be done with a simple majority vote.
Greene also accused Mayorkas of violating the Secure Fence Act - a 2006 law that says the southern U.S. border can only be declared secure if no people or contraband enter the country illegally.
"Alejandro Nicholas Mayorkas, in his inability to enforce the law, has engaged in a pattern of conduct that is incompatible with his duties as a civil officer of the United States," Greene's resolution says.
Mayorkas said the Act sets an impossible standard as not a single individual can cross the border illegally and maintain compliance with the Secure Fence Act.
"Under that statutory definition, no administration has achieved operational control," Mayorkas said during the summer.
Mayorkas said then that "a layer of reasonableness must be applied here."
Mayorkas said the U.S. currently has 24,000 personnel stationed at the border and defines operational control as maximizing those resources to achieve the most efficient results.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and congressional Democrats have called Greene's resolution a baseless attack on Mayorkas and urged lawmakers to focus on important business instead of playing political games.
"Instead of continuing their reckless impeachment charades and attacks on law enforcement, Congress should work with us to keep our country safe, build on the progress DHS is making, and deliver desperately needed reforms for our broken immigration system that only legislation can fix," the department said in a statement.
Greene has largely ignored those pleas and appears focused on forcing a floor vote on her resolution.
"This is the No. 1 priority and it can't be ignored," Greene said of impeaching Mayorkas. "There shouldn't be anything else."
In a separate social media post Thursday, Greene seemed to imply that the U.S. should focus on securing the country' southern border rather than being involved in other conflicts.
"I'm sorry world we can't defend your borders anymore," she posted on the social media platform known as X without being completely clear what country she was referring to.
"We have a severe national security crisis at our own border. I'm done with hearings, reports, and phases. The only answer is impeachment, it's time."
