A U.S. House of Representatives committee voted along party lines early Wednesday to advance two articles of impeachment against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
The Republican majority propelled the measures in the 18-15 vote, with Democrats on the committee criticizing the effort as a stunt.
The impeachment articles accuse Mayorkas of refusing to comply with federal immigration laws and breaching the public trust, as Republicans criticize him as not doing enough to address security and the increasing number of migrants arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border.
The effort comes as the Senate continues work on a bipartisan border security bill that includes policies U.S. President Joe Biden said last week would be “the toughest and fairest set of reforms to secure the border we’ve ever had in our country.”
The charges against Mayorkas could be sent to the full House as soon as next week. Given the Republicans' slim majority in the House and opposition from Democrats, it is unclear if they will be able to secure a majority vote for impeachment.
While former President Donald Trump was impeached twice and former President Bill Clinton was impeached in 1998, no Cabinet secretary has been impeached since War Secretary William Belknap in 1876. Neither Belknap nor either of the presidents was convicted in the Senate, where a two-thirds majority vote is required.
Mayorkas “has willfully and systematically refused to comply with the law passed by Congress and breached the trust of Congress and the American people,” Committee Chairman Mike Green said at Tuesday’s daylong hearing. He said the secretary has left the committee with no other option but to proceed with impeachment.
Mayorkas, who did not testify in front of the committee, has denied the accusations.
“I assure you that your false accusations do not rattle me and do not divert me from the law enforcement and broader public service mission to which I have devoted most of my career and to which I remain devoted,” Mayorkas said in a letter to the committee.
In the letter, he also urged the committee to work with the Biden administration to update the country’s “broken and outdated immigration laws.”
Some material for this report came from The Associated Press and Reuters.
