(DailyVantage.com) – The effort to impeach Alejandro Mayorkas, Homeland Security Secretary, failed last week, dashing Republican hopes to replace the agency leader.
If GOP lawmakers had voted entirely on party lines, the impeachment would have gone through, but a few Republicans peeled off and voted with their Democratic colleagues. The four who voted “no” to the impeachment were Ken Buck of Colorado, Mike Gallagher of Wisconsin, Blake Moore of Utah, and Tom McClintock of California.
By contrast, the Democrats voted together, giving an outcome of 216 to 214 against. The resolution mashed together two separate articles of impeachment against the embattled Mayorkas, whom the GOP accuses of failing to uphold US immigration law and of allowing the southern border to remain wide open. The articles accused Mayorkas of willfully failing to “comply with Federal immigration laws” and of violating “the public trust.”
Under the Joe Biden administration, six million illegal aliens have flooded across the southern border. The U.S. has never seen an influx of this magnitude in its history.
The failure to impeach Mayorkas is not a surprise in historical context, as only one federal official has ever been removed from his position by this method. In 1876, Congress impeached Secretary of War William Belknap.
Republicans have been loud and insistent that Mayorkas is refusing to uphold the law and refusing to do his job. Rep. Mark Green of Tennessee, chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, said border agents have reported 8.5 million “encounters” at the border under Mayorkas’ watch. He also cites the 1.8 million “got-aways” under Mayorkas’ stewardship. The term refers to border jumpers who may encounter an agent, but who disappear into the country’s interior afterward.
This is a significant defeat for Republicans. They have been scrutinizing Mayorkas heavily, holding hearings throughout 2023 and using phrases such as “dereliction of duty” to describe the Secretary’s apparent indifference to what many are calling an all-out invasion of the United States.
Texas has been in a standoff with the Biden administration, too, erecting razor wire at several border locations to keep out illegals. The White House went to the Supreme Court and obtained a ruling that confirms federal border agents can take down the barriers, but Texas has vowed to put them right back up.
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