House Republicans ousted Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Tuesday, reversing their failed vote on an unusual move a week ago — and setting up a showdown in the Democratic-controlled Senate.
The House voted 214-213 to approve two articles of impeachment against President Biden’s chief border enforcement officer on charges of “willful and systemic refusal to comply” with federal immigration laws and lying to Congress about the border being “secure.”
Mayorkas, 64, is only the second Cabinet official to be indicted after Secretary of War William Belknap, who resigned in 1876 from President Ulysses S. Grant’s administration hours before the House formally impeached him on corruption charges.
Belknap was later acquitted by the Senate — an outcome also possible for Mayorkas since politically vulnerable Senate Democrats like Montana’s Jon Tester have dismissed House impeachment calls as “political game.”
But some Republicans in the Senate — which puts individuals on trial if they are impeached, or indicted, by the House — vowed to make the case for removal.
“There are certainly many who believe his case deserves impeachment and will vote accordingly,” a Senate GOP aide told The Post. “With Democrats in control of the chamber, however, it is essentially certain that the vote will fail — if [Senate Majority Leader Chuck] Schumer [D-NY] allowing it to happen in the first place.”
“Never in American history has there been an impeachment where the Senate has refused to vote on the matter,” the aide added. “If Schumer kills it procedurally, without a vote, it’s unprecedented.”
In a statement after the vote, Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Mia Ehrenberg responded that “House Republicans will be remembered by history for trampling on the Constitution for political gain instead of working to solve serious challenges at our borders.”
House Republicans voted to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Tuesday night. Getty Images Speaker Johnson cast the vote, formally impeaching Mayorkas on Tuesday evening. AP
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) has named 11 GOP impeachment managers to make a case for conviction during Senate hearings: House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mark Green (Ten.) and Reps. Michael Guest (Ms.), Michael McCaul (Texas), August Pfluger (Texas), Clay Higgins (La.), Ben Cline (Va.), Andy Biggs (Ariz.), Andrew Garbarino (NY), Harriet Hageman (Wyo.), Laurel Lee (Fla. ) and Marjorie Taylor Greene (Ga.), who authored the resolution.
“For nearly a year, the House Homeland Security Committee has taken a careful and methodical approach to this investigation and the results are clear: since his first day in office, Secretary Mayorkas has deliberately and consistently refused to comply with federal immigration law, fueling the border catastrophe. worst in American history,” Johnson said in a statement after the vote.
Three Republicans – Reps. Ken Buck (Colo.), Tom McClintock (Calif.) and Mike Gallagher (Wis.) – opposed the resolution both this week and last week, but no other GOP lawmakers joined them on subsequent votes.
The first impeachment attempt failed due to the surprise appearance of Rep. Al Green (D-Texas), who is recovering from intestinal surgery — but rolled to the floor minutes before the vote in a wheelchair to vote “no.”
Migrants wait to be processed at a Customs and Border Protection station near the border in Sasabe, Arizona on February 11, 2024. James Keivom The final vote was 214-213. AP
With the return this week of Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.), who has been absent while receiving stem cell treatment for blood cancer, House Republicans can afford to lose three members and still accuse Mayorkas.
“You can only do so much over the phone,” Scalise said told “Fox News” on Tuesday, citing an unexpected snowstorm that has complicated things a bit.
“You’re always talking to the whip, and he keeps track of, you know, whose planes are delayed and all that stuff,” Scalise said, referring to House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.), who helped get the motion to the floor for a vote. “But I mean, you know, we plan to move forward with it.”
The Department of Homeland Security released a memo earlier Tuesday denouncing the GOP’s actions as a “stunt,” as Buck called it, and referring to other statements made by McClintock and Gallagher as dissent.
Republican lawmakers claim that Mayorkas lied to Congress about the border being “secure.” Photo by John Moore/Getty Images
The memo also cited Republican senators such as Mitt Romney of Utah and James Lankford of Oklahoma who echoed those criticisms and declared the resolution “dead on arrival” in the upper house.
Buck and McClintock made their conference aware of their position before both votes, arguing that Mayorkas’ conduct did not rise to the level of “high crimes and misdemeanors” outlined as grounds for impeachment in the Constitution.
Likewise, Gallagher, whose spokesman told The Post before Tuesday’s vote that his “position has not changed” since last Tuesday, pointed to a congressman’s op-ed in the Wall Street Journal defending his decision.
House Speaker Mike Johnson has named 11 GOP impeachment managers for Senate hearings. Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images
“Impeachment will not only fail to resolve Mr. Biden’s border crisis but will also set a dangerous new precedent that will be used against future Republican administrations,” Gallagher wrote, before noting that GOP lawmakers had voted against the “one-party” impeachment of former President Donald Trump. Trump in 2019 and 2021.
“The person most responsible for the chaos and destruction at the border is Mr. Biden, not Mr. Mayorkas,” he said. “If Mr. Mayorkas is removed, his successor will also implement Mr. Biden’s disastrous border policy. If anything, accusing Mr. Mayorkas would absolve Mr. Biden of blame on his own merits.”
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The DHS memo further points to objectionable statements by federal officials in the George W. Bush administration and the assessment of 25 legal scholars that as a matter of constitutional law, the prosecution is “totally unwarranted” — an argument echoed by House Democrats.
The House impeachment bill, H.Res.863, alleges that Mayorkas failed to enforce the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 and the Secure Fence Act of 2006, while lying in testimony to Congress about having “operational control” of the border.
After issuing a memo on September 30, 2021, which eased the rules for detaining and deporting immigrants, Mayorkas authorized his department to initiate a de facto “catch and release” policy for millions of illegal border crossings, according to the resolution.
That has resulted in a backlog of more than 3 million asylum seeker cases in the US, the resolution notes.
Since Biden took office, more than 8.5 million immigrants have been apprehended by US Customs and Border Protection — with 7 million of those encounters occurring at the southern border.
Another 1.8 million “tourists” are known to have evaded arrest upon entering the country.
The Senate briefly considered a bipartisan package to address the border enforcement issue — but that was killed under pressure from GOP border peddlers a day after the House failed to vote on its first impeachment.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
