United States: The House of Representatives approves the impeachment of the Secretary of Homeland Security, for the first time in 150 years

The US House of Representatives voted Tuesday evening in favor of removal by impeachment or indictment to the Secretary of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas, in an attempt by the Republican majority to punish the Biden administration for his management of the U.S.-Mexico border after failing last week in a similar attempt.

Mayorkas is now the first Cabinet secretary to be impeached in nearly 150 years. President Joe Biden called it a “blatant act of unconstitutional partisanship that targeted an honorable public official to play petty political games.”

Mayorkas, who did not testify before the impeachment trial, blamed the border crisis directly on Congress for failing to update immigration laws during a time of global migration.

THE border security he came to occupy a prominent place in electoral matters, and Donald Trump, the Republican frontrunner for the presidential nomination, insists he will launch “the largest domestic deportation operation in the history of the United States” if he regains the White House.

The evening’s roll call proved tight, as President Mike Johnson’s threadbare Republican majority was unable to handle many deserters or absences in the face of staunch Democratic opposition to Mayorkas’ firing.

However, in a historical rebuke, the House impeached Mayorkas 214-213. With Majority Leader Steve Scalise returning to bolster GOP numbers after being away from Washington for cancer treatments and a nor’easter affecting others, Republicans have rallied, despite dissent within their own ranks.

In the Senate, at the end of the month

The accusations against Mayorkas will soon go to the Senate for a trial, but neither Democratic nor some Republican senators have shown interest in the issue and may be set aside indefinitely in committee. The Senate is expected to receive the articles of impeachment from the House after it returns to session on February 26.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., brought the case against Mayorkas a “false political process” and a “new low for House Republicans.”

In a frenetic vote-counting scene in the House of Representatives, the GOP’s attempt to impeach Mayorkas over his handling of the southern border he looked desperate politics as Republicans struggle to meet their priorities.

Mayorkas he faced two articles of impeachment presented by the Committee on Homeland Security supporting this they “deliberately and systematically” refused to enforce immigration laws existing e violated the public trust by lying to Congress and saying the border was secure.

But critics of the impeachment effort have said the charges against Mayorkas amount to a political dispute over Biden’s border strategy that hardly rises to the constitutional level of high crimes and misdemeanors.