Republicans in the House of Representatives ultimately voted to impeach Homeland Security Sec. Alejandro Mayorkas failed spectacularly exactly one week after their first attempt.
The two articles of impeachment accuse President Biden’s top border official, Mayorkas, of failing to enforce immigration law and lying to Congress about the state of the U.S.-Mexico border.
He is the first Cabinet official to be impeached in nearly 150 years and now faces a possible trial in the Democratic-controlled Senate, which is expected to acquit him.
The measure passed by just one vote, 214 to 213, after three Republicans, Reps. Ken Buck, R-Colo., Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., and Tom McClintock, R-Calif., joined Democrats in calling for to oppose it and said it would happen. be “unconstitutional” and set a “bad precedent” for the Republican Party in the future.
Republicans rushed to pass the resolution last week, but it failed because they miscalculated how many Democrats would be present while Majority Leader Steve Scalise was away for cancer treatment.
Republicans even brought back Rep. Hal Rogers, R-Ky., wearing a full chest and neck brace after a car accident to vote. But Democrats faced an unexpected surprise in the middle of the first impeachment vote: Rep. Al Green, D-Texas.
Sitting in a wheelchair and still dressed in his scrubs without shoes, Green had just undergone surgery, but at the last minute he managed to cast the final vote against impeaching the DHS secretary.
After last week’s embarrassing failure, Republicans rushed to pass the resolution on Tuesday — hours before the outcome of the race to replace the former representative. George Santos at a special election in New York.
If the Democrat wins, it will reduce their narrow 219-212 majority by one more crucial vote.
Republicans in the House of Representatives ultimately voted to impeach Homeland Security Sec. Alejandro Mayorkas on their second attempt after last week’s spectacular failure. The articles accuse Mayorkas of failing to enforce U.S. immigration law and lying to Congress about the state of the U.S.-Mexico border.
Scalise, R-La., reversed to Washington after autologous stem cell blood treatment cancer multiple myeloma. He is now in ‘complete remission’.
“The only way to stop the border invasion is to replace the Biden administration at the ballot box,” McClintock wrote on Biden and unconstitutionally extends the impeachment that will one day take place. bite Republicans.”
Shortly after last week’s impeachment defeat, a vote to provide Israel with $17.6 billion failed to gain the two-thirds majority needed to pass under a rules suspension.
The articles specifically allege that Mayorkas is violating U.S. law mandating the detention of migrants who have no authority to reside in the country, and that he is exceeding his conditional authority by allowing migrants to live and work in the U.S. work while they wait for their asylum application to be processed.
Mayorkas has denied such claims and Democrats insist he is merely implementing the Biden administration’s policies.
Border Patrol made a record 249,785 apprehensions at the Mexican border in December, nearly a third more than in November and 13 percent higher than the previous record in December 2022.
Mayorkas blamed the “broken system” for Congress’ failure to act – after Republicans destroyed an immigration and foreign aid deal negotiated in the Senate.
“It is certainly a crisis and we bear no responsibility for a broken system,” Mayorkas said. ‘And we do a huge amount within that broken system. But fundamentally, fundamentally, Congress is the only one who can fix it.”
Meanwhile, Rep. Gallagher, one of the Republicans who voted against impeachment, said this weekend that he would not seek re-election at the end of his term.
“Impeachment would not only fail to resolve Mr. Biden’s border crisis, but would also set a dangerous new precedent that will be used against future Republican administrations,” Gallagher wrote in a Wall Street Journal op-ed about the impeachment efforts .
Impeachment only required a simple majority to refer the articles to the Senate, where the Senate can vote against the opening of a trial with a simple majority.
But even conservative Republicans in the Senate see this effort as futile.
Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., last week called it “the stupidest exercise and use of time.”
Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., said impeachment was a “waste” unless it involves President Biden and Republicans should focus more on advancing their case to the public in an election year.
House Republicans roundly rejected the Senate’s bipartisan immigration and foreign aid deal.
Migrants attempt to cut through a barbed wire fence installed to prevent the entry of illegal migrants across the Rio Bravo/Grande from Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua state, Mexico on February 12, 2024
“What’s rich for me is that the speaker is saying that the (border) bill in the Senate … is dead on arrival. And then they proceed to oust a Cabinet secretary, who is clearly dead on arrival,” Cramer said.
“It will be dead on arrival if it gets to that point, but it will still be the same policy even if Mayorkas leaves because we have the same president,” said Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla. months of negotiating the foreign aid and immigration deal with Democrats.
Earlier on Tuesday, the Senate approved a $95 billion foreign aid deal, including money for Ukraine, Israel, Gaza and Taiwan – with the removal of immigration provisions.
Speaker Mike Johnson said he has no plans to bring the package to the House of Representatives. He called it “insufficient” without border security measures and said the Senate “has failed to meet the moment.”
“Now that the House has not received any change in Senate border policy, the House will have to continue to exercise its will on these important issues,” Johnson continued. “America deserves better than the Senate status quo.”
Mayorkas said Sunday that he is undeterred by the Republican Party’s attacks on him.
“These are baseless allegations, Kristen, and that’s why I’m really not going to let them distract me and focus on the work of the Department of Homeland Security,” he said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” with Kristen Welker.
‘I have a busy day today. After the show a busy working day. I have a busy day, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and so on.’
