Republicans will attempt for a second time to impeach President Joe Biden’s top border official Tuesday after the first House floor vote failed by one vote last week, embarrassing GOP leadership and temporarily sparing Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
Last week’s historic impeachment vote was slated to make history as the first Cabinet official impeachment in 148 years but fell short after three Republicans chose to side with Democrats and a fourth Republican purposely changed his vote at the last minute to bring the measure back up for a second vote in the future.
Republicans are expected to have the votes with the return of House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA), who had been out last week for cancer treatment.
Republican leadership celebrated his return and prioritized the second shot at impeachment.
“House Republicans remain resilient in our fight to secure our border, protect communities across the nation, and hold accountable those who threaten our national security,” Scalise’s office wrote in an email previewing floor action this week.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) has led the charge in the House to remove Mayorkas for high crimes and misdemeanors.
The House will vote on two articles of impeachment that were passed through the House Homeland Security Committee in late January and approved by the Rules Committee last week.
Mayorkas faces two counts: willful and systemic refusal to comply with the law and a breach of the public trust related to his handling of the border crisis.
“He’s guilty of aiding and abetting the complete invasion of our country by criminals, gang members, terrorists, murderers, rapists, and over 10 million people from over 160 countries into American communities all across the United States,” Greene said in a floor speech ahead of the Feb. 6 vote.
Since Biden took office, more than 7.5 million illegal immigrants have been encountered attempting to enter the United States, and 6 million of that figure entered illegally between ports of entry, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data. The Biden figure far exceeds the number of illegal immigrants encountered during the Trump administration’s four years and the Obama administration’s eight years combined.
Greene said on Monday that Republicans who bucked the effort last week had been slammed with “tens of thousands” of messages from upset constituents and voters nationwide.
“Last week after 3 Republicans voted with Democrats against impeaching Mayorkas, each of their offices received TENS OF THOUSANDS of voicemails from furious Americans within the first 24 hours,” Greene wrote. “Our border security is the MOST IMPORTANT issue in the country. IMPEACH MAYORKAS!”
Reps. Mike Gallagher (R-WI), Tom McClintock (R-CA), and Ken Buck (R-CO) broke with their party and voted in defense of Mayorkas. All Democrats voted against the impeachment articles.
Gallagher has since announced he won’t seek reelection. Asked if Gallagher stands by his vote, the congressman’s office referred the Washington Examiner to a Feb. 6 op-ed in which Gallagher laid out his reason for siding with Mayorkas.
Although Gallagher said Biden has “created a disaster at our southern border” and Mayorkas’s performance “has been a disgrace,” he broke with his colleagues over the way that Republicans are forcing him out.
“Impeachment not only would fail to resolve Mr. Biden’s border crisis but would also set a dangerous new precedent that would be used against future Republican administrations,” Gallagher wrote.
Rep. Blake Moore (R-UT) took a fall for House GOP leadership last week when he switched his vote at the last minute, a move that initially made him look like he had jumped ship.
In a video posted to X last Wednesday, Moore explained that he was not in disagreement with Republicans’ decision to attempt to oust Mayorkas but that his last-minute move of switching his “yes” vote to “no” was a procedural move at the request of House GOP leadership. A tied vote of 215-215, as it was before Moore switched his vote, would have killed the measure and forced the party to introduce a new bill, thus delaying impeachment. Moore did not respond to a request for comment on expectations for the Tuesday vote.
The Department of Homeland Security was out early Tuesday morning with pushback against House Republicans ahead of the vote later in the day.
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The department compiled examples of Republicans pushing back against the impeachment vote, including Sens. James Lankford (R-OK), Tommy Tuberville (R-AL), Kevin Cramer (R-ND), and Mitt Romney (R-UT).
“House Republicans’ baseless push to impeach Secretary Mayorkas has already failed once, with bipartisan opposition,” the DHS said in a statement. “If Members of Congress care about our national security, they should listen to their fellow Republicans and stop wasting time on this pointless, unconstitutional impeachment — time that could be spent addressing the issue by advancing bipartisan legislation to fix our broken immigration laws and provide needed resources for border security.”
