House Republicans on the Homeland Security Committee voted early Wednesday morning to forward an impeachment resolution against Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
Republicans unveiled articles of impeachment against Mayorkas over the weekend, accusing the security chief of lying to Congress and defying the law and congressional oversight.
As The Hill reports, Democrats strenuously objected throughout the daylong session, saying that policy disagreements do not warrant impeachment:
The strict party-line vote, after an all-day markup that stretched past midnight, cements the GOP’s plans to ignite the second impeachment of a cabinet official in U.S. history, with a pledge from Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) to swiftly bring the resolution to floor as soon as possible.
In pitching the articles, Republicans faulted Mayorkas for failing to detain all migrants crossing the border – a standard no administration has met – accused him of being personally responsible for fentanyl deaths, and attacked him as being the type of leader the framers had in mind in crafting the impeachment process.
“If your refusal to obey the law leads to the death of your fellow Americans, you no longer deserve to keep your job. You’re breaking the people’s trust. That’s why the framers gave Congress the impeachment power,” Chair Mark Green (R-Tenn.) said in opening the hearing.
“Secretary Mayorkas is the very type of public official the framers feared,” he continued.
“We’re here based on two completely fabricated, unsupported and never used before articles of impeachment,” Rep. Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.) countered. Goldman served as lead counsel on the first impeachment of former President Donald Trump.
“There’s never been an impeachment in the history of the United States where someone has been impeached for something other than the abuse of power for purposes outside of his official duties.”
The impeachment proceedings are happening at a hectic time for the border, Capitol Hill and the 2024 campaign trail.
While a bipartisan group of senators is negotiating a border deal with the White House and Mayorkas that is reported to contain a number of key GOP priorities, Trump has tried to actively spike the deal, seeing it as a win for President Biden.
Last week, Speaker Johnson told his colleagues that if the rumors about the deal are true, the Senate package will be “dead upon arrival” in the House.
Meanwhile, GOP lawmakers in the House remain committed to impeaching Mayorkas even if its odds of success in the Senate remain slim to none.
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