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1 Three US Troops Killed, 34 Injured By Drone Strike In Jordan, President Biden Says "We Shall Respond"
President Joe Biden had a short but definitive response to the drone attack that killed US soldiers over the weekend. Speaking at the “Sunday Lunch” event at a church in South Carolina yesterday, Biden asked for a moment of silence for the three soldiers, saying, “We had a tough day last night in the Middle East. We lost three brave souls in an attack on one of our bases.” After the moment of silence, Biden told the crowd “and we shall respond.” The President blamed Iran-backed militias for the first US fatalities in the region from strikes since the start of the Israel-Hamas War, and US officials are working to conclusively identify the exact group responsible. According to a Europe-based activist, Iran-backed fighters in eastern Syria began evacuating their posts, fearing US airstrikes. Central Command says that in addition to the three service members killed, at least 34 other troops were injured. The drone strike hit a logistics support base in Jordan known as Tower-22 on the border with Syria, where roughly 350 US Army and Air Force personnel were deployed. Republicans in Congress are criticizing the administration’s approach to the region, with Sen. Lindsay Graham calling on the military “to strike targets of significance inside Iran, not only as reprisal for the killing of our forces, but as deterrence against future aggression.”
2 House Republicans Unveil Articles Of Impeachment Against DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas
Yet another impeachment is on the table in Washington, this time for the head of Homeland Security. House Republicans formalized their allegations yesterday that they say are grounds to impeach Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. The first impeachment article is an allegation that Mayorkas displayed a “willful and systemic refusal to comply with the law,” while the second article argues that he “knowingly made false statements, and knowingly obstructed lawful oversight of the Department of Homeland Security.” DHS responded to the news yesterday with a memo that said in part that Republicans have been a problem during the crisis at the border. The memo says that Republicans “undermined efforts to achieve bipartisan solutions and ignored the facts, legal scholars and experts, and even the Constitution itself in their quest to baselessly impeach Secretary Mayorkas.” The House Homeland Security Committee is expected to vote on the articles tomorrow, with House Speaker Mike Johnson saying there will be a vote in the full House as soon as possible.
3 Texas Attorney General Refuses To Grant Federal Agents Full Access To Border Park
The legal battle over the US-Mexico border continues. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton rejected a federal request on Friday that would have given federal immigration officials full access to Shelby Park in Eagle Pass, Texas. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott took control of the park earlier this month, and Texas National Guard soldiers have prevented Border Patrol agents from processing migrants in the area. The Texas Department of Public Safety has recently started arresting some adult migrants who enter the park on state criminal trespassing charges. The Supreme Court allowed Border Patrol agents to cut the razor wire Texas has put into place near the Rio Grande, but the courts haven’t ruled on the state’s seizure of Shelby Park.