The initiative by Republican parliamentarians to try to impeach the US Secretary of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas, has failed. In a vote in the plenary session of the House of Representatives, the motion, with hardly any precedents, was rejected by two votes, 214 in favor compared to 216 against.
Four Republicans joined Democrats to reject the charges brought against the head of the Biden Administration's immigration policy: dereliction of duty to protect the border and violation of the public trust placed in him by making false statements before Congress.
The result of the vote represents a resounding slap in the face for the Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, who shortly before the vote had declared that he had enough votes to move the proposal forward.
Democratic lawmakers, constitutional experts and Mayorkas' predecessors in office had condemned the move, accusing Republicans of wanting to turn what was just a difference of political opinion into a legal punishment. They also alleged that there was no indication that the Secretary of Homeland Security had committed the type of treason or serious crime for which the United States Constitution reserves impeachment.
The Democrats also denounced that this initiative was reduced to mere posturing: even if the impeachment trial had gone ahead in the Lower House, it had no chance of being approved in the Senate, where the ruling party has the majority. It is the first time that a political process, or “impeachment,” has been attempted against a member of a presidential team in the United States in nearly 150 years.
Immigration has become one of the big issues of the electoral campaign ahead of the presidential elections next November in the United States, given the increase in arrivals of irregular migrants. Last year broke records for illegal entries: 2.4 million people, 14% more than the previous year. In December, the Border Patrol detained nearly 250,000 people trying to cross the border illegally, the highest number in decades.
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Republican Congressman Tom McClintock, one of those who voted against the measure, declared during the debate on the proposal that Mayorkas “is guilty of mismanagement of our immigration laws on a stratospheric level.” But at the same time he clarified that the Constitution does not provide for the Constitution to be used as a weapon in “political fights.”
The failure of the motion comes on the same day that Republicans appear to have knocked down a bill in the Senate that sought to resolve the problem for which they accuse Mayorkas of inaction, border control. That proposal, the content of which was disclosed on Sunday, toughened immigration control measures in addition to including an allocation of almost $120 billion for aid to Ukraine against the Russian invasion and to Israel in the war in Gaza, among other allocations. The Republicans in the House had, in turn, proposed another bill only for assistance to Israel, although this measure has also been rejected, by 250 votes against to 180 in favor.
In a statement, the Department of Homeland Security has attacked the “baseless and unconstitutional” attempt to depose its leader. “House Republicans will be remembered in history for trampling on the Constitution in search of political gain, rather than collaborating to resolve the serious challenges at our border,” said department spokeswoman Mia Ehrenberg.
Last year it broke records for irregular entries, 2.4 million people, 14% more than the previous year; In December, the Border Patrol detained nearly 250,000 people trying to cross the border illegally, the highest number in decades.
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