WASHINGTON — U.S. House Republicans on Tuesday impeached Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas for the second time in recent weeks, widening the rift between Republicans and the White House over immigration policy decisions at the southern border. It was a turning point.
The House voted 214-213 to approve two articles of impeachment accusing Mayorkas of willfully ignoring immigration laws and lying to Congress about the status of border security. This is the second time in history that a cabinet minister has been impeached. William Belknap, Secretary of War and former Iowa congressman, was impeached in 1876.
Members of North Carolina's delegation were evenly divided, with Republicans supporting impeachment and Democrats opposing the resolution.
A vote on the resolution last week failed 214-216, with House Republican Majority Leader Steve Scalise of Louisiana absent because of ongoing cancer treatment. Utah Republican Blake Moore switched his vote from “yes'' to “no,'' a procedure that would allow the resolution to be reconsidered.
“House Republicans' work is far from over,” said House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mark Greene (R-Tennessee). I wrote to X before Tuesday's vote. “Secretary Mayorkas has created the worst border crisis in American history, and it is long past time for him to be impeached.”
Greene has held multiple hearings on impeachment proceedings against Mayorkas.
All House Democrats and three Republicans in attendance voted against both articles of impeachment. Critics of the process argue that ministers should not be impeached over policy disputes.
The Republicans who voted against impeachment were Sens. Ken Buck of Colorado, Mike Gallagher of Wisconsin, and Tom McClintock of California.
President Joe Biden called the impeachment vote “a petty political game” and criticized House Republicans.
“Secretary of Homeland Security Mayorkas, a Cuban immigrant who came to the United States with his family as a political refugee, has faithfully served the United States for more than 20 years throughout a distinguished career in law enforcement and public service,” Biden said. “Republicans with real concerns about the border should want Congress to provide more border resources and stronger border security instead of staging political stunts like this.”
After the vote, DHS spokeswoman Mia Ehrenberg said in a statement: “House Republicans will go down in history for trampling the Constitution for political gain rather than working to solve serious challenges at the border. Deaf,” he said.
The Senate is required by the Constitution to hold an impeachment trial. A conviction requires two-thirds of the House.
immigration conflict
The impeachment effort launched by Georgia Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene is the most high-profile example of an escalating clash between Democrats and Republicans over how to deal with the unprecedented number of migrants at the southern border. Dew.
Tensions have only increased since Senate Republicans abandoned a bipartisan border security agreement last week. The agreement would overhaul U.S. immigration law by creating a temporary procedure to close the border during operations and raising standards for asylum claims.
The border security deal, which is tied to a $95 billion security package, was pushed through the Senate as Republicans aligned themselves with Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump, who has made stoking fears about migrants at the southern border a central part of his campaign. It was rejected.
The global security policy was passed early Tuesday without a migration deal.
House Democrats have denounced efforts to impeach Mayorkas as political, while Republicans have argued that Mayorkas should be held accountable for what they deemed a “crisis” at the southern border.
The first article of impeachment accuses Mr. Mayorkas of a “deliberate and systematic refusal to abide by the law,” and the second article accuses him of betraying the public's trust by, among other things, making false statements during Congressional testimony. It specifically cites Mayorkas, who told lawmakers that the border is a border. “Safe.”
2 votes for impeachment resolution
With House Republicans in the slim majority and absent last week, House Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana barely missed two votes in the first impeachment vote on February 6th. Mr. Scalise returned to Washington on Tuesday, giving Republicans some breathing room. They had to overcome three members who vote Democratic.
The same Republicans who voted against the second impeachment, Buck, McClintock and Gallagher, also voted against the first impeachment.
Gallagher, who was a key holdout in the effort to impeach Mayorkas, announced shortly thereafter that he would not seek re-election.
In an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal, Gallagher explained his vote against impeachment and expressed concern that it would set a precedent.
“A new, lower impeachment standard without clear limiting principles will neither secure the border nor hold President Biden accountable,” he said. “It only further pries open Pandora's box of eternal impeachment.”
The White House said in a statement last week that Mayorkas' impeachment was “an unprecedented act of unconstitutional political retaliation that will do nothing to solve the challenges our country faces in border security.” .
