LITTLE ROCK, AR – Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge, along with 13 other state attorneys general, are calling for President Biden’s Homeland Security Secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas, to resign based on the administration’s repeated failures to uphold its duty to protect the American people. Secretary Mayorkas’s continued refusal to enforce federal law has left the southern border unsecure and the nation on the verge of a national security crisis. As a result, the attorneys general demand that Secretary Mayorkas resign.
“Two weeks ago, local authorities in White County confiscated $3 million worth of methamphetamines and suspected fentanyl pills reaffirming that the crisis at the southern border is directly impacting Arkansans in our own back yards,” said Attorney General Leslie Rutledge. “I’ve seen firsthand the crisis at our border, and it’s time Secretary Mayorkas and the rest of the Biden Administration get serious about securing the southern border and keeping dangerous drugs out of our country.”
In a letter to Secretary Mayorkas, the 14 attorneys general outline the failures of the secretary’s leadership under President Biden. In the midst of a national opioid crisis, Mexican drug cartels wasted no time exploiting President Joe Biden and his administration’s open border policies. The letter states: “From the time you [Mayorkas] took office to December 2021, U.S. Customs and Border Protection seized enough fentanyl to kill every man, woman and child in our country six times over—an increase of more than 30 percent since before you took office. If that much was detected and seized, we shudder to think how much more is slipping through each day…Any competent leader facing such disastrous results would quickly alter their policies to abate the extraordinary harm…Yet you continue undeterred, oblivious…to the destruction and deaths you are causing in American communities.”
The letter also outlines Secretary Mayorkas’s failure to deal with thousands of illegal immigrants entering through the southern border. As the letter explains, Secretary Mayorkas and the White House have made no effort to vet those coming across our border. The letter states: “…the number of sex offenders arrested entering our country increased by an astounding 213 percent over the last fiscal year. Given your unlawful catch and release policies, we are left with many other unanswerable questions, like how many children are now being trafficked in our communities and how many sex offenders now prowl our streets.”
The letter also explains how President Biden’s administration, under Secretary Mayorkas, has refused to enforce the law which has resulted in an increase in the number of convicted criminals entering the country. The letter states: “Deportations have fallen a staggering 70 percent since 2020…Perhaps most egregiously, you have refused to deport some of the most dangerous criminals, even though you are required by law to do so. That decision is shocking, especially because Democrats and Republicans alike have always prioritized the removal of criminals here illegally, including when you were Deputy Secretary of DHS from 2013-2016.”
Because of the abject refusal to carry out the duties Secretary Mayorkas swore to uphold when he joined the Biden Administration, the coalition of attorneys general are calling for the secretary to resign immediately. President Biden should appoint a more competent secretary who recognizes the rule of law, the Constitution and the value of law-and-order in our communities.
Attorney General Rutledge joined the attorneys general of the following states in signing on to the letter led by Florida: Alabama, Arizona, Georgia, Indiana, Louisiana, Missouri, Montana, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, and West Virginia.
About Attorney General Leslie Rutledge
Leslie Carol Rutledge is the 56th Attorney General of Arkansas. Elected on November 4, 2014, and sworn in on January 13, 2015, she is the first woman and first Republican in Arkansas history to be elected as Attorney General. She was resoundingly re-elected on November 6, 2018. Since taking office, she has significantly increased the number of arrests and convictions against online predators who exploit children and con artists who steal taxpayer money through Social Security Disability and Medicaid fraud. Further, she has held Rutledge Roundtable meetings and Mobile Office hours in every county of the State each year, and launched a Military and Veterans Initiative. She has led efforts to roll back government regulations that hurt job creators, fight the opioid epidemic, teach internet safety, combat domestic violence and make the office the top law firm for Arkansans. Rutledge serves on committees for Consumer Protection, Criminal Law and Veterans Affairs for the National Association of Attorneys General. She also served as the former Chairwoman of the Republican Attorneys General Association.
A native of Batesville, she is a graduate of the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville and the University of Arkansas at Little Rock William H. Bowen School of Law. Rutledge clerked for the Arkansas Court of Appeals, was Deputy Counsel for former Governor Mike Huckabee, served as a Deputy Prosecuting Attorney in Lonoke County and was an Attorney at the Department of Human Services before serving as Counsel at the Republican National Committee. Rutledge and her husband, Boyce, have one daughter. The family has a home in Pulaski County and a farm in Crittenden County.