By Steve Neavling
Republicans on the Homeland Security Committee voted early Wednesday to push forward with plans to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas for a “willful and systematic” refusal to enforce immigration laws and a “breach of public trust.”
The committee voted 18 to 15 along party lines to approve two articles of impeachment, The New York Times reports.
The full House is expected to vote on the articles of impeachment as early as next week, despite having no evidence that Mayorkas committed a crime.
The last time a cabinet member was impeached was 1876. William Belknap, the secretary of war for President Ulysses Grant, was impeached for his role in a trader post scandal, but he was acquitted by the Senate.
If the House follows through with Mayorkas’ impeachment, the Democratic-controlled Senate is also expected to reject the measure. A two-thirds majority is needed to convict and remove Mayorkas.
The House committee meeting carried on all day and went past midnight as Republicans stated their case.
“Secretary Mayorkas has put his political preferences above following the law,” Rep. Mark E. Green, R-Tenn., and chairman of the panel, said at the start of Tuesday’s session. He insisted Mayorkas’ border policies “have been catastrophic and have endangered the lives and livelihoods of all Americans.”
Democrats countered that the Biden administration is doing its best to curtail an unprecedented wave of migrants.
“Neither of the impeachment charges the committee will consider today are a high crime or misdemeanor,” said Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., the panel’s most senior Democrat. He added that House Republicans “don’t want progress. They don’t want solutions. They want a political issue.”
