Alejandro Mayorkas, Homeland Security Secretary, has been saved from impeachment in the House of Representatives by a very slim margin(216-214 votes). Mayorkas was accused of demonstrating a “willful and systemic refusal to comply with the law” and “breaching the public trust.”
The vote finally reached the plenary session of the House of Representatives after months of discussions about the responsibility of Secretary Mayorkas in the country's immigration crisis. While all House Republicans seem to agree that the Secretary has failed in his role, there is still a group that thinks this is insufficient to meet the requirements for impeachment, and given the narrow majority of Republicans in the House, the necessary votes were not obtained.
Representative Tom McClintock (R-CA), one of those who voted against impeachment, said in his speech that Secretary Mayorkas is guilty of mismanagement of immigration laws and that a cabinet secretary can be subject to impeachment for committing a crime related to his office but not for carrying out a presidential policy. He added that the border crisis cannot be fixed by replacing one leftist servant with another one, but that it can only be solved with the votes of Americans to change the current administration.
Even if the impeachment had been approved in the House, Mayorkas would have been acquitted in the Senate, where Democrats have a majority. However, even though the Republican initiative in the House had no future, for those who voted in favor, it is about doing their job and making the person in charge of border security respond to the immigration disaster that the country is currently experiencing.
As the elections loom closer and closer, the immigration issue becomes increasingly important among voters, and the issue is no longer just a problem for border states but for the entire country. The nation as a whole is seeing deaths from fentanyl increase, crimes committed by immigrants, and how sanctuary cities are being overwhelmed. This has made even the Democratic Party, which for years seemed to ignore the crisis at the border, today recognize that the immigration system is "broken."
Democrats' plan to address Americans' growing demand for a secure border has been to advance, in recent weeks, a bipartisan bill that President Biden called "the strongest border bill this country has ever seen," but that for many Republicans that is a complete lie. Republican senators and representatives who oppose the bill, also promoted by Mayorkas, claim that the bill takes taxpayer money to process migrants instead of solving the problem and stopping migration. At this moment, the proposal seems dead and as if it would not even obtain the necessary votes in the Senate.
The Four Republicans who overturned the Impeachment
Ken Buck
The Colorado representative, who voted against the impeachment articles against the secretary introduced by Marjorie Taylor Greene, kept his word and voted "no" again to Mayorkas' impeachment. According to Buck, his vote was because the secretary "has not committed a high crime or a misdemeanor."
Rep. Ken Buck (R-CO) tells @Jayobtv that he voted against impeaching Alejandro Mayorkas because the Homeland Security secretary "has not committed a high crime or a misdemeanor." pic.twitter.com/BDT2KQuAvA
— ABC News Live (@ABCNewsLive) February 7, 2024
Mike Gallagher
The Wisconsin representative said he refused to support his colleagues' motion because "creating a new, lower standard for impeachment, one without any clear limiting principle, would neither secure the border or hold President Biden accountable. It would only further open the Pandora's box of perpetual impeachment."
“Creating a new, lower standard for impeachment, one without any clear limiting principle, wouldn’t secure the border or hold President Biden accountable. It would only further pry open the Pandora’s box of perpetual impeachment.”
Read more: https://t.co/W1GkLBxoVa— Rep. Gallagher Press Office (@RepGallagher) February 7, 2024
Tom McClintock
The Californian defended his position, saying that while Mayorkas "is guilty of maladministration of our immigration laws on a cosmic scale," this is not enough to remove him from office, noting that the only real solution is to get Joe Biden out of the White House at the ballot box.
Secretary Mayorkas is guilty of maladministration of our immigration laws on a cosmic scale. But we KNOW that’s not grounds for impeachment, because the American Founders specifically rejected it. pic.twitter.com/eSP6VXstNB
— Tom McClintock (@RepMcClintock) February 6, 2024
Blake D. Moore
The Utah congressman chose to share a post from Chad Pergram and a Fox News video to make his point.
Let me take you down the parliamentary rabbit hole for a moment. The reason Rep. Blake Moore (R-UT) switched his vote from yea to nay on the impeachment vote for DHS Secretary Mayorkas: https://t.co/1Xj7Zcs2k0
— Chad Pergram (@ChadPergram) February 7, 2024
