The Republican-led House of Representatives on Tuesday impeached Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, only the second time in U.S. history that a Cabinet member has been impeached.
The House by the barest of margins, 214-213, approved two articles of impeachment against Mayorkas, alleging that he intentionally violated federal immigration laws and blocked congressional oversight of the Homeland Security Department.
Mayorkas faces the prospect of a trial in the Senate, where he is all but certain to be acquitted by the chamber’s Democratic majority. The Senate, which is on recess until Feb. 26, will either dismiss the impeachment articles outright or send the trial to a special committee to hear evidence.
“History will not look kindly on House Republicans for their blatant act of unconstitutional partisanship that has targeted an honorable public servant in order to play petty political games,” President Joe Biden said in a statement following the vote.
The White House has repeatedly condemned the impeachment effort over the past year, calling it a political distraction by Republicans, who refused $20 billion of border security funding in a bipartisan Senate deal last week.
“While Secretary Mayorkas was helping a group of Republican and Democratic Senators develop bipartisan solutions to strengthen border security and get needed resources for enforcement, House Republicans have wasted months with this baseless, unconstitutional impeachment,” the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement after the vote.
Two Democrats, Reps. Judy Chu of California and Lois Frankel of Florida, were absent from the Tuesday vote, allowing Republicans to clinch the majority.
Chu was isolating after testing positive for Covid-19. She would have voted against the impeachment had she been on the House floor, she said in a post on X Tuesday night.
The GOP-led impeachment motion was a small redemption for Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and Republican hardliners after the same…
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