House rejects push to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas as border fight rages

WASHINGTON – The House rejected a GOP push Tuesday to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, a significant blow to the Republicans trying to make immigration and the border a top issue heading into the 2024 elections.

The vote failed by a count of 214-216 to not impeach Mayorkas, with no Democrats supporting the move and a handful of Republicans joining them. It was always a heavy lift for House Republican leaders to push the impeachment effort through considering their razor-thin majority in the lower chamber. That means Republicans could hardly afford to lose any votes in the impeachment fight.

House Republicans voted on two articles of impeachment accusing Mayorkas of a “willful and systemic refusal to comply with the law” and a “breach of public trust.” Mayorkas, GOP lawmakers argue, has intentionally allowed the crisis at the border to continue.

But Democrats, a small number of House Republicans and legal experts across the political spectrum have long dismissed Republicans’ impeachment push. They say the GOP’s grievances with Mayorkas amount to nothing more than policy disagreements over how to handle the border and America's immigration system. Impeaching him, they say, would set a dangerous precedent for future impeachments.

And some Republicans also raised questions about the push to impeach the secretary. Rep. Tom McClintock, R-Calif., released a statement Tuesday saying nothing would change, even if Mayorkas was removed from office.

The crisis at the border, McClintock said, can only be solved after the 2024 elections to “replace the entire administration and that can only be done by the American people at the ballot box.”

The White House has also long criticized the impeachment push, issuing a stark warning to Republicans ahead of the vote.

“Impeaching Secretary Mayorkas would trivialize this solemn constitutional power and invite more partisan abuse of this authority in the future,” the White House said in a statement on Monday. “If the House of Representatives wishes to address (the border), the Constitution provides an obvious means: passing legislation.”

Even if the House did approve the articles, the prospect of removing Mayorkas from his office faced long odds in the Senate, which has the power to hold a trial to remove an impeached official. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer declined to commit to even holding those proceedings.

And even if there was a trial, Mayorkas would almost certainly be acquitted, as conviction requires a two-thirds vote, and Democrats control the upper chamber. Some GOP senators have already expressed skepticism about the grounds for impeaching the secretary.

The push to impeach Mayorkas also came at a fraught time for the Senate’s bipartisan $118 billion deal that would overhaul migration policy and provide aid to Ukraine and Israel, key U.S. allies.

House Republican leaders have all but killed the agreement, expressing doubt even before they had the formal text of the legislation. Instead, House GOP leaders have insisted that Congress should pass their hard-line bill that significantly restricts migrant claims – referred to as H.R. 2. The bill received no Democratic votes when it passed in the House last year, and it hasn't even been taken up by the Democratic-controlled Senate.

At the same time, House Republicans are also arguing there is no need to pass new legislation addressing the border, instead claiming President Joe Biden already has powers to stymie the flow of migrants to the U.S.

"Any consideration of this Senate bill in its current form is a waste of time. It is DEAD on arrival in the House," House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn., and House GOP conference chair Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., said in a joint statement.

Their arguments today come as Republican leaders, including former President Donald Trump, have for years called for sweeping congressional action on the southern border.

The now failed effort to impeach Mayorkas, who will almost certainly not be convicted by the Senate, while also outright rejecting the Senate’s bipartisan border deal underscores how Republicans and the former president plan to make immigration and the border a focal point heading into the 2024 elections, laying the crisis at Biden’s feet.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: House rejects push to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas