WASHINGTON (CN) — Just a week after House Republicans suffered an embarrassing rout in their effort to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, lawmakers narrowly approved a second attempt at removing the White House’s immigration enforcement czar.
The lower chamber cleared articles of impeachment against Mayorkas, who has been head of the Department of Homeland Security since 2021, on a tight 214-213 vote. Three Republicans voted against the revamped measure.
House Speaker Mike Johnson took to the lectern in the chamber to announce the final vote tally, which was met with whoops and applause from some lawmakers.
Although Mayorkas is now considered impeached, it will be up to the Senate to decide whether he should be convicted and removed from his post — an unlikely prospect given the fact that Democrats control the upper chamber where a two-thirds majority would be required.
Tuesday’s impeachment vote comes exactly one week after the House Feb. 6 failed to approve a similar measure against Mayorkas. It was an outcome that occurred thanks in large part to several congressional Republicans who refused to back impeachment, painting their colleagues into a political corner.
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, who was undergoing cancer treatment and was absent last week, returned Tuesday to back the measure.
In a statement Tuesday night, Speaker Johnson said that Mayorkas “deserves to be impeached.”
“Secretary Mayorkas has willfully and consistently refused to comply with federal immigration laws, fueling the worst border catastrophe in American history,” he said. “Since this secretary refuses to do the job that the Senate confirmed him to do, the House must act.”
Some of the Republican caucus’s most conservative members have for months pushed for a Mayorkas ouster, putting him squarely at the center of what they see as the Biden administration’s failure to secure the southwestern border from illegal immigration.
Among the charges leveled against Mayorkas in the articles of impeachment, lawmakers contend the secretary oversaw a policy of “catch and release” under which migrants entering the country illegally are not detained while awaiting trial in an immigration court. Republicans have also accused the secretary of pursuing mass parole determinations for migrants instead of considering such cases one by one.
Mayorkas and the White House have vehemently contested these accusations, calling the impeachment effort a “farce” and a distraction from what they argue is Congress’ responsibility to pass border security legislation.
A spokesperson for the White House did not immediately return a request for comment.
Meanwhile, House Democrats on Tuesday bashed the move to oust Mayorkas.
Mississippi Representative Bennie Thompson, ranking member of the House Committee on Homeland Security, said in a statement that Republicans have “decided to torch the Constitution — once again — to suit their political ends.”
“To be clear, this baseless impeachment will do nothing to secure the border,” Thompson said, adding Republicans “have rejected any solution for the sole reason that they can have a political wedge issue in an election year.”
Indeed, lawmakers are still spinning their wheels on addressing border security issues. Senate Republicans last week reversed course on a measure that would have packaged immigration enforcement provisions with foreign aid, a move that stung Democrats who had worked to reach a bipartisan compromise.
Republicans, who view immigration as a top issue in November’s presidential election, have attempted to foist the onus of responsibility solely on the Biden administration, arguing that the president already has the authority to crack down on illegal immigration.
Tuesday’s vote marks only the second time in roughly 150 years that a sitting cabinet official has been impeached — the last time Congress exercised such authority was in 1876, when lawmakers gave the boot to Secretary of War William Belknap after he was implicated in a corruption scandal.
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