House Impeaches Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas

The United States House of Representatives voted narrowly on Tuesday to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro N. Mayorkas, charging him with willfully refusing to enforce border laws and breaching public trust.

In a 214-213 vote, Republicans overcame Democratic resistance and internal divisions to impeach Mr. Mayorkas, the first serving cabinet secretary in US history. Reps. Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., Ken Buck, R-Colo., and Tom McClintock, R-Calif., all voted against the measure.

It amounted to a politicised condemnation of President Biden’s immigration policy by the GOP, which is attempting to use an increase in migration across the US-Mexico border during his tenure as a political weapon against him and Democrats in this year’s elections.

The vote came a week after the House rejected the accusations against Mr. Mayorkas when Republicans, who control the chamber by a razor-thin margin, attempted but failed to marshal a majority to support them.

The House Homeland Security Committee voted to accept two impeachment articles against Mayorkas. One accused him of “refusing to comply with Federal immigration laws,” while the other said he broke “public trust.”

The Department of Homeland Security chastised House Republicans for convening a second Mayorkas impeachment vote on Tuesday, citing GOP lawmakers who described the attempt as a waste of time.

“The House Republicans’ unfounded attempt to impeach Secretary Mayorkas has already failed, with bipartisan opposition.

If members of Congress care about our national security, they should listen to their Republican colleagues and stop wasting time on this pointless, unconstitutional impeachment – time that could be better spent addressing the issue by advancing bipartisan legislation to fix our broken immigration laws and provide needed border security resources,” the department stated.

A DHS official stated that House Republicans “will be remembered by history for trampling on the Constitution for political gain rather than working to resolve the serious challenges at our border.”

“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,” a spokesperson for the committee stated.

“Without any evidence or legitimate constitutional grounds, and despite bipartisan opposition, House Republicans have falsely slandered a dedicated public servant who has spent more than 20 years enforcing our laws and serving our country.” Secretary Mayorkas and the Department of Homeland Security will strive every day to keep Americans safe.

Joe Biden, President of the United States, remarked, “history will not look kindly on House Republicans for their blatant act of unconstitutional partisanship that has targeted an honourable public servant in order to play petty political games.”

“This impeachment has already failed in a bipartisan vote. Instead of staging political stunts like these, Republicans who are truly concerned about the border should urge Congress to provide more border resources and improved border security.”

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