Republicans on Tuesday impeached US President Joe Biden’s immigration chief, the culmination of months of attacks on the Democratic administration as they seek to make border security a key issue in November’s election.
Conservatives in the US House of Representatives, which is narrowly controlled by Republicans, blame US Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas for a surge in illegal entries from Mexico that they have called a “humanitarian catastrophe.”
Lawmakers passed two articles accusing him of “willful and systemic refusal” to enforce immigration law and “breach of public trust,” making him the first Cabinet secretary to be impeached in nearly 150 years.
Photo: AFP
It was Republican leaders’ second swing at Mayorkas after they botched a first impeachment effort last week by wrongly anticipating how many lawmakers would be present on each side and losing by just one vote. Tuesday’s rerun was just as close, but the return of Republican House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, who had been receiving cancer treatment, swung the chamber the other way in a 214-213 vote.
“Next to a declaration of war, impeachment is arguably the most serious authority given to the House and we have treated this matter accordingly,” House Speaker Mike Johnson said. “Since this secretary refuses to do the job that the Senate confirmed him to do, the House must act.”
However, Biden immediately rebuked Republicans for what he termed a “blatant act of unconstitutional partisanship that has targeted an honorable public servant in order to play petty political games.”
“We will continue pursuing real solutions to the challenges Americans face, and House Republicans have to decide whether to join us to solve the problem or keep playing politics with the border,” he said.
The outcome was unprecedented as the House has only ever impeached one other Cabinet official — US Secretary of War William Belknap in 1876 — and that was over serious allegations of corruption rather than a straightforward policy disagreement.
However, seen as the political equivalent of an indictment, the rebuke is largely symbolic, as Mayorkas is certain to be acquitted at his trial in the Democratic-led US Senate.
The vote came amid a showdown between the House and the Senate over curbing a surge in illegal immigration, which hit a record 10,000 apprehensions a day at the US-Mexico border in December last year.
House Republicans have been accused of acting in bad faith in the impeachment, especially after coming out against a bipartisan deal hammered out in the upper chamber that would have imposed the toughest asylum and border policies in decades.
“House Republicans will be remembered by history for trampling on the constitution for political gain rather than working to solve the serious challenges at our border,” said Mia Ehrenberg, a spokesperson for the US Department of Homeland Security.
Impeachment is meant to be a sanction for treason, bribery and other “high crimes and misdemeanors,” according to the US constitution.
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