Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas
CV NEWS FEED // The House of Representatives on Tuesday evening impeached Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas by a single-vote margin.
The vote comes amid widespread criticism of Mayorkas’ Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for its role in the Biden administration’s unprecedented crisis at the nation’s southern border.
Axios reported that the chamber “impeached Mayorkas on two counts, ‘willful and systemic refusal to comply with the law’ and ‘breach of public trust.’”
“On this vote the ‘yeas’ are 214 and the ‘nays’ are 213,” Speaker Mike Johnson, R-LA, stated on the House floor.
“The resolution is adopted,” he announced, striking his gavel. Some members cheered.
Every Democrat who voted opposed the motion. Joining them in voting against the impeachment were three Republicans: Reps. Ken Buck, R-CO, Mike Gallagher, R-WI, and Tom McClintock, R-CA.
Of the trio, only McClintock is running for re-election. Gallagher, 39, abruptly announced his retirement days after he shockingly voted against a previous attempt to impeach Mayorkas last week.
House Homeland Security Chairman Mark Green, R-TN, suggested that the secretary violated federal immigration laws by allowing the crisis to continue.
“He’s disregarding the laws that this body passed, basically disregarding the institution in the United States Congress, disregarding the Constitution in of itself, which says we write the laws and they execute them,” Green stated following Tuesday’s vote.
“[Mayorkas] should enforce and detain everybody, and he’s not been doing that,” the congressman added. “And so we’ve held him accountable tonight.”
Green led the investigation that resulted in the DHS chief’s impeachment.
>> CV EXPLAINER: WHAT IS IMPEACHMENT? <<
In a statement released after the vote, Johnson wrote that Mayorkas “deserves to be impeached, and Congress has a constitutional obligation to do so.”
“Next to a declaration of war, impeachment is arguably the most serious authority given to the House and we have treated this matter accordingly,” he went on. “Since this secretary refuses to do the job that the Senate confirmed him to do, the House must act.”
Rep. Byron Donalds, R-FL, celebrated the vote’s outcome.
“To all families who have lost a loved one due to Joe Biden’s man-made border crisis, we have answered the call,” he wrote on X (formerly Twitter). “House Republicans stand with the American people to ensure everything that can be done, will be done to SECURE OUR NATION.”
Rep. Mary Miller, R-IL, wrote that she voted for the impeachment “on behalf of the Border Patrol agents, National Guardsmen, and law enforcement officers across this country who are on the front lines against the cartels because Biden [and] Mayorkas opened our southern border.”
Sen. Mike Lee, R-UT, hinted at the inevitable next step in the effort to remove Mayorkas from his position.
“We’ve got a trial to conduct,” he simply wrote.
In order for Mayorkas to be removed, a two-thirds majority of the Senate must vote to convict him on at least one of his two articles of impeachment. This is virtually impossible, given the fact that the upper chamber is controlled by Democrats.
Mayorkas is only the second cabinet secretary in American history to be impeached by the House. The first was Grant administration Secretary of War William Belknap, whom the House impeached nearly 150 years ago.
As CatholicVote previously reported, “Belknap was impeached in 1876 for ‘criminal disregard for his office and accepting payments in exchange for making official appointments.’”