In a vote as tight as it can be in the United States House of Representatives, 214 to 213, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas was impeached on Wednesday, 14 February. He is only the second US Department Secretary to be indicted by the lower chamber of Congress in American history and the first since 1876.
House Republicans have brought charges of impeachment against Secretary Mayorkas for his
‘willful and systemic refusal’ to enforce immigration laws on the Southern border.
The impeachment was cleared in the House Committee on Homeland Security with a vote of 18–15 on 31 January. However, in a surprising turn of events, the first impeachment vote actually failed in the House on 6 February after three GOP representatives (from the states of California, Colorado, and Wisconsin), defected from the party line.
It was an embarrassing show for the House Republicans, for which they got punished: in the special election held to replace the recently expelled George Santos in New York’s 3rd Congressional District, Republican Mazi Pilip lost to Democrat Tom Suozzi on Tuesday, 13 February. Special elections called after the resignation (or, in this case, expulsion) of a Representative after a scandal tend to go to the other party. However, this time, Suozzi won by a bigger margin than the polling anticipated, winning by around 7.5 points, as opposed to the 3–4 points measured by polls.
For the second vote on Wednesday, however, Republican Steve Scalise from Louisiana also turned up despite some health problems, tilting the scale in favour of an indictment. Thus, Secretary Mayorkas’ impeachment will go to trial in the Senate, where Democrats have a narrow majority. A two-thirds majority is needed for a conviction.
The Republican Party, especially Former President Donald Trump, has been a vocal critic of the Biden administration’s handling of border protection on the Southern border. What drew the most backlash from the GOP was the withdrawal of the so-called Remain in Mexico policy, under which asylum seekers were required to stay outside the United States until the courts adjudicated their requests. Under the Biden administration, however, any migrant can put in an asylum application, and then enter the country freely whether it is accepted or not. If their application is rejected, tracking them down and deporting them is no easy task—and often neglected.
The number of illegal immigrants in the United States has doubled under President Biden,
as Merrill Matthews estimates in his opinion piece for The Hill, published in January 2024. According to the scholar, about 10 million illegal migrants have entered and remained in the US since the current POTUS took office, on top of the 10.2 million who were already in the legal populace.
The Department of Homeland Security has responded to the impeachment. Spokeswoman Mia Ehrenberg has said that ‘House Republicans will be remembered by history for trampling on the Constitution for political gain rather than working to solve the serious challenges at our border’. Meanwhile, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson of the Republican Party has defended the impeachment, saying: ‘Next to a declaration of war, impeachment is arguably the most serious authority given to the House and we have treated this matter accordingly…Since this secretary refuses to do the job that the Senate confirmed him to do, the House must act.’
The First US Cabinet Member Impeachment Since 1876
As we wrote above, a Department Secretary being impeached in the United States is not a common occurrence—it has only happened once before, 148 years ago.
Back then, William Belknap, the Secretary of War serving in the second administration of President Ulysses S. Grant, was impeached for taking bribes from traderships. He was impeached by a Democrat-majority house on 2 March 1876, even though he had already resigned by then. He was eventually not convicted by the Senate (which had a Republican majority at the time). Later, he was indicted in the Washington DC federal court for his crimes, but the charges were eventually dropped.
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