Alejandro Mayorkas: House votes to impeach homeland security secretary

The House of Representatives has narrowly voted to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, making him the first cabinet member to face impeachment in nearly 150 years.

Many Republicans blame Mr Mayorkas for an unprecedented influx of migrants at the US-Mexico border.

The Republican-led chamber voted 214 to 213 for the measure, after the first attempt failed last week.

The issue now heads to the Democratic-led Senate, where it looks doomed.

President Joe Biden on Tuesday called the vote a “blatant act of unconstitutional partisanship” and a “political stunt”.

Opponents of Mr Mayorkas accused him of not living up to his oath to “well and faithfully discharge the duties” of his office by failing to do more to secure the border.

The vote was largely divided along party lines, with 210 Democrats voting against the impeachment.

Two Democrats missed the vote owing to illness and a flight delay. Judy Chu of California had Covid and Lois Frankel’s plane had a mechanical failure in her home state of Florida.

Three Republican defectors – Tom McClintock of California, Ken Buck of Colorado and Mike Gallagher of Wisconsin – voted no.

The trio also voted against the first attempt to impeach Mr Mayorkas, arguing that impeaching someone who had not committed a serious crime would weaken the constitutional penalty and do little to address the crisis at the border. Mr Gallagher has since announced he won’t run for re-election.

More than 6.3 million migrants are known to have entered the US illegally since 2021, making immigration a politically contentious issue ahead of the November election.

It is a major focus of Donald Trump’s campaign to oust Mr Biden from office.

In a statement released shortly after the vote, Mr Biden defended Mr Mayorkas, calling him “an honourable public servant”.

“He has upheld the rule of law faithfully and has demonstrated a deep commitment to the values that make our nation great,” the president said.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, Mia Ehrenberg, accused Republicans of spending their time “trampling on the constitution” instead of “working to solve the serious challenges at our border”.

Republican Speaker of the House Mike Johnson said Mr Mayorkas “deserves to be impeached”.

Over the course of two hearings in January, Republicans charged Mr Mayorkas with failing to enforce immigration policies and lying about the border’s security. Mr Mayorkas did not testify, although a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said he had offered to do so.

On Tuesday night, Republicans were able to secure their narrow victory with an additional vote from House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, who had missed last week’s vote because he was undergoing treatment for cancer.

Impeachment – a process outlined in the US Constitution – marks the first step in removing a federal official for high crimes or misdemeanours.

It requires a simple majority in the 435-member House. This then triggers an impeachment trial in the Senate, but a two-thirds majority in the 100-member Senate is needed for it to succeed.

But Mr Mayorkas seems in no imminent danger of losing his job.

The upper chamber of Congress is narrowly controlled by the Democrats and some Republican senators – including James Lankford, Tommy Tuberville and Mitt Romney – have also criticised the impeachment.

Mr Lankford told reporters it would be “dead on arrival” in the upper chamber.

The House is due to present the impeachment articles to the Senate on 26 February when it returns from recess.

The last cabinet secretary to be impeached was Secretary of War William Belknap in 1876, although he resigned shortly ahead of the vote.

A January poll conducted by CBS – the BBC’s US partner – suggests that nearly half of Americans view the situation at the border as a crisis, with 63% wanting “tougher” policies.

The US Customs and Border Protection agency on Tuesday said border crossings were down 50% in January, attributing the dramatic drop to “seasonal trends, as well as enhanced enforcement efforts”.

Experts have also credited increased enforcement by the Mexican government for the drop in migrant “encounters” at the border in the wake of a December meeting between Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

In the US, migrant crossings have also shifted geographically to Arizona and California from Texas, where state officials have credited unilateral border security efforts for the shift.