The United States Senate, with a majority from the Democratic Party, rejected this Wednesday (17) two accusations of impeachment against the Secretary of Homeland Security of the Joe Biden administration, Alejandro Mayorkas, which had been approved in the House, with a Republican majority, in February.
Mayorkas, blamed by the opposition for the migration crisis on the border with Mexico, had been accused of “intentional and systemic refusal to comply with the law” and “breach of public trust” by allegedly failing to take sufficient measures to combat illegal immigration.
The first article was overturned with 51 votes in favor of its archiving and 48 against, and the second, by 51 to 49.
According to information from the Reuters agency, the Republican leader in the Senate, Mitch McConnell, said before the votes that shelving the case “would mean escaping both our fundamental responsibility and the blatant truth of the record crisis on our southern border”.
Mayorkas had been the first secretary of the American federal government to be impeached by the House since 1876.
According to data from the United States Customs and Border Protection Agency, in fiscal year 2023 (from October 2022 to September 2023), there was a record number of illegal crossing attempts on the country's southern border, with 2.4 millions of records. In fiscal year 2024 (October 2023 until March), there are already more than 1.3 million flagrant incidents.
#Senate #files #impeachment #proceedings #Biden #secretary #migration #crisis