House Republicans vote to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas over border crisis

WASHINGTON – The House voted to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Tuesday, after an embarrassing failed attempt from House Republicans last week as they seek to make the crisis on the southern border a top 2024 issue.

The vote passed mostly along party lines by a count of 214-213, with no Democrats supporting the effort and a few GOP lawmakers joining them. Until Tuesday evening’s vote, the House had not impeached a Cabinet secretary in almost 150 years.

The crux of House Republicans’ allegations against Mayorkas, whom they have long sought to impeach, is that the secretary deliberately and willfully allowed the crisis on the southern border to reach an extreme state.

"With this vote, Congress has made clear that we will not tolerate such lawlessness," Mark Green, R-Tenn., chair of the GOP-led House Homeland Security Committee, said in a statement.

But Democrats, a handful of GOP lawmakers and legal scholars across the political spectrum have argued that House Republicans’ accusations amount to nothing more than policy disagreements over immigration.

Policy debates, they argue, aren’t the high crimes or misdemeanors the Constitution requires for impeachment. Skeptics of the effort have raised concerns that impeaching Mayorkas could have a ripple effect, politicizing future impeachments.

President Joe Biden in a statement Tuesday went after House Republicans for impeaching Mayorkas over his handling of the border, especially after they outright rejected a bipartisan border and immigration deal from the Senate, calling it a "political stunt."

Mia Ehrenberg, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, said in a statement after the vote: “Without a shred of evidence or legitimate Constitutional grounds, and despite bipartisan opposition, House Republicans have falsely smeared a dedicated public servant who has spent more than 20 years enforcing our laws and serving our country,"

Ultimately, nothing will result from Tuesday night’s vote. The Senate has the power to hold a trial to remove an impeached official, but Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., has not committed to holding the proceedings. He called the proceedings a "sham" in a statement after the vote.

Once senators return from their two-week recess later this month, they "will be sworn in as jurors in the trial the next day," Schumer said in his statement. Though members will be sworn in as jurors, it's not clear whether there is appetite among lawmakers to sit through a trial.

Even if a trial were to be scheduled, Mayorkas would almost certainly be acquitted in the Democrat-controlled Senate. Several Republican senators also have expressed skepticism over the grounds for impeaching and removing Mayorkas.

House Republicans tried to impeach Mayorkas last week, but they failed in spectacular fashion when the vote was tied 215-215. A tie is not enough for a vote to pass in the House. Only one member, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., was absent, seeking treatment outside Washington for cancer.

Three Republicans, Reps. Ken Buck of Colorado, Mike Gallagher of Wisconsin and Tom McClintock of California, joined Democrats to sink the initial effort. They voted again on Tuesday night against impeachment. Because of Scalise’s absence and Republicans’ razor-thin majority, three GOP defections were enough to tank the last vote.

Impeaching Mayorkas, Gallagher said in a statement after the first vote, “will only further pry open the Pandora’s box of perpetual impeachment.”

The final vote count was 214-216. The House Republican conference vice chair, Rep. Blake Moore, R-Utah., supported impeaching Mayorkas but switched his vote at the last moment as a procedural tactic to allow House GOP leadership to bring up the articles of impeachment again.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: House GOP votes to impeach Alejandro Mayorkas over border crisis