The House delivered a reprieve to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Monday, narrowly derailing an effort to question him.
Lawmakers voted 209-201 to refer an article of impeachment to the Homeland Security Committee somewhat than take it up instantly.
Eight Republicans joined 201 Democrats in voting to rescue Mr. Mayorkas from turning into the primary sitting Cabinet member ever to be impeached.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Georgia Republican, compelled the vote over the objection of some colleagues who noticed the transfer as untimely. It bypassed the standard impeachment strategy of an official “impeachment inquiry,” full with hearings and the chance for Mr. Mayorkas’ supporters to mount a protection.
Other Republicans mentioned these procedural questions have been distractions from the massive query: whether or not Mr. Mayorkas has failed so badly that he wanted to be eliminated.
“A vote with the Democrats is a vote to protect Mayorkas and against impeachment,” Ms. Greene mentioned in an e-mail to supporters forward of the vote, asking them to stress their members of Congress. “Mayorkas is breaking the law by not enforcing the law.”
Her decision accused Mr. Mayorkas of permitting an “invasion” on the border, violating the Constitution together with his lack of motion to implement legal guidelines, and endangering the general public with document quantities of fentanyl and other people on the terrorism watch record flooding into the nation.
Mayorkas backers mentioned the impeachment push was extra about politics than excessive crimes and misdemeanors, the usual the Constitution units for impeaching a U.S. officer.
“While the House Majority has wasted months trying to score points with baseless attacks, Secretary Mayorkas has been doing his job and working to keep Americans safe,” mentioned Mia Ehrenberg, Mr. Mayorkas’ spokeswoman.
The eight Republicans who voted to dam impeachment have been Reps. Cliff Bentz of Oregon; Ken Buck of Colorado; Tom McClintock, John Duarte and Darrell Issa of California; Patrick McHenry and Virginia Foxx of North Carolina; and Mike Turner of Ohio.
Republicans have talked about impeaching Mr. Mayorkas because the early days of his tenure. Rep. Kevin McCarthy of California put it on his to-do record as speaker after it was clear the Republicans would take management of the chamber within the wake of final yr’s elections.
It shortly grew to become clear {that a} vital variety of Republican lawmakers wouldn’t vote for impeachment.
Mr. McCarthy assigned committees to research Mr. Mayorkas with an eye fixed towards constructing the case for impeachment. It was not an official impeachment inquiry, however most members considered it because the precursor to an inquiry.
The Homeland Security Committee has since launched a collection of reviews accusing the secretary of repeated “dereliction of duty.” The committee mentioned Mr. Mayorkas broke the border, enriched the violent smuggling cartels, misled Congress and piled large new burdens on Americans.
A fourth installment report was launched Monday, simply hours earlier than the impeachment vote. It tried to calculate the price of unlawful immigration to American taxpayers, citing one estimate that mentioned it prices New York as a lot as $150,000 per individual for a yr’s value of care.
The mounting border chaos has swung some Republicans, however not sufficient to go Ms. Greene’s decision.
Impeachment is meant to come back by means of the Judiciary Committee.
Ms. Greene complained that she needed to drive the problem to the ground as a result of that committee hadn’t acted regardless of what she known as overwhelming proof that the secretary had failed.
“My articles of impeachment sit collecting dust, with the others, while Americans die every single day,” she mentioned.
The vote did little to chill Republicans’ anger towards Mr. Mayorkas, who has grow to be a punching bag for lawmakers annoyed at having seen a border comparatively underneath management within the Trump administration flip into chaos underneath President Biden.
“I think your performance is despicable,” Sen. Josh Hawley, Missouri Republican, instructed the secretary in a listening to final month.
Mr. Mayorkas fired again, calling Mr. Hawley “adversarial” and “disrespectful.”
During a listening to in July, one House Republican mentioned Mr. Mayorkas “should be ashamed” of his efficiency. Another accused him of mendacity concerning the tempo of fentanyl trafficking. A 3rd known as him “the most dishonest witness that has ever appeared before the Judiciary Committee.”
That final remark got here from Rep. Mike Johnson, who has since grow to be speaker of the House, taking on for Mr. McCarthy.
Only one Cabinet official has ever been impeached: Secretary of War William Belknap, in 1876, a month after he resigned. The Senate held a trial however couldn’t muster the two-thirds majority wanted to convict him.
Even had the House voted Monday to question Mr. Mayorkas, the possibilities of getting a two-thirds majority within the Democratic-led Senate would have been primarily zero.
