The United States House of Representatives passed a resolution to impeach Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas.
In a second vote on the matter held on Feb. 13, the House elected to remove Mayorkas from office 214-213.
Three Republicans — Colorado Congressman Ken Buck, Wisconsin Congressman Mike Gallagher and Californian Congressman Tom McClintock – sided with Democrats against impeachment, while two Democrats did not vote, per ABC News.
Mayorkas is the first cabinet secretary to be impeached since Ulysses S. Grant's war secretary William Belknap was impeached in 1876.
Republicans have called for Mayorkas’s removal in the wake of surging illegal immigration at the nation’s southern border as well as increasing concerns about human trafficking and drug smuggling.
Two articles of impeachment were passed by the House Homeland Security, which contends Mayorkas has failed “to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic” as he is required to do under his oath of office. The committee also believes the secretary has “willfully and systemically” refused to “comply with Federal immigration laws.”
At least 6 million encounters with illegal immigrants have been recorded by Customs and Border Patrol under President Joe Biden.
Despite House Republicans' increasing frustration with the Biden administration, the first impeachment vote failed 214-216.
Buck, Gallagher and McClintock had previously joined House Democrats in opposing the articles.
The three congressmen individually released statements arguing that Mayorkas has acted at the direction of President Biden and there was insufficient evidence to prove he had committed an impeachable crime.
“The logic should be very obvious. A cabinet secretary’s job is to carry out the will of the President,” wrote McClintock. “How can he be impeached for not doing his job because he is doing it?”
Since the vote, Gallagher has announced he will not be seeking reelection.
The fourth Republican "no" vote was cast by Congressman Blake Moore of Utah – who has spoken in favor of Mayorkas’s impeachment – as a procedural maneuver that allowed the motion to be brought back to the floor.
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise of Louisiana – who was away from Washington, D.C. while undergoing treatment for blood cancer and missed the first vote – was expected to shift the outcome of the second vote.
