The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is spending $3 million on a law firm to defend agency Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas from impeachment.
DHS hired a private law firm on Jan. 26 to provide legal counsel as House Republicans began pushing to impeach Mayorkas, according to an agency contract the Heritage Foundation’s Oversight Project shared with The Post.
The $3 million figure is equivalent to the starting salary of 70 new border agents at $42,000 each.
Records published online show the government awarded the contract to New York law firm Debevoise & Plimpton and that it runs until 2025.
House Republicans voted Feb. 13 to impeach Mayorkas for alleged “willful and systemic refusal to comply” with federal immigration law and lying to Congress by saying the southern border is “secure.”
The Senate is expected to take up the articles of impeachment against Mayorkas and possibly hold a trial.
DHS said that hiring outside counsel was necessary “to ensure that the Department’s interest in the deliberative process and other executive branch and Departmental equities are protected,” according to the contract, which the Oversight Project obtained through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit.
The contract states the lawyers will work on “any potential impeachment efforts,” as well as “preparatory work, appearance and participation in any oversight hearings in the House of Representatives.”
Kyle Brosnan, Chief Counsel for the Oversight Project, told The Post hiring lawyers for Mayorkas is a waste of taxpayer dollars.
“The American people’s House of Representatives impeached Secretary Mayorkas. It is completely gross that the taxpayers are now simultaneously funding millions of dollars to a sophisticated and hard left law firm to fight against their wishes,” he said, adding: “Why are the American people paying for lawyers to fight them?”
During his visit to Brownsville, Texas, Feb. 29, President Joe Biden delivered an urgent message to Congress to pass border security funding.
“They desperately need more resources, they need more agents, more officers, more judges, more equipment in order to secure our border. Folks, it’s time for us to move on this, we can’t wait any longer,” Biden said.
The Senate failed to pass a $118 billion border security package, which included $650 million to build a wall and a provision to shut down the border when there are more than 5,000-per-day crossings on average over a one-week period.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said the deal would “dead on arrival” in his chamber of Congress, arguing that it wouldn’t actually close the southern border to illegal immigration.
Specialized scanners made to detect fentanyl coming through ports of entry along the southern border are going unused because funding to install the machines is also being held up in Congress, acting Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Commissioner Troy Miller told NBC News Tuesday.
In response, a DHS spokesperson told The Post: “ These legal costs only exist because of House Republicans’ wasteful and pointless impeachment. House Republicans have wasted countless hours and resources on their baseless effort to impeach Secretary Mayorkas, rather than addressing the many urgent priorities before Congress. When impeachment proceedings began over a year ago, DHS retained outside counsel to ensure the Department’s vital mission is not interrupted by these unprecedented, unconstitutional, and partisan impeachment efforts. DHS takes seriously our duty as responsible stewards of taxpayer resources, and we need Congress to do its part to support our law enforcement and national security mission as well as the personnel who execute that mission each day.”
