House of Representatives voted against an effort to impeach Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas.
The motion was brought by Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, who argued that Mayorkas had neglected his official duties by failing to secure the United States-Mexico border.
Members of the House temporarily delayed the proposal following a 209 to 201 vote on Nov. 13. The resolution will be returned to the Homeland Security Committee for additional consideration before being brought back to the House floor for another vote.
In total, eight Republicans joined House Democrats in opposing the proposal in its current form. This includes Representatives Patrick McHenry of North Carolina, Virginia Foxx of Virginia, Cliff Bentz of Oregon, Ken Buck of Colorado, and Mike Turner of Ohio. Additionally, three House Republicans from California – Tom McClintock, John Duarte, and Darrell Issa – voted against impeaching Mayorkas.
Greene took to X to chastise the members of her party who voted with Democrats.
“How many more Americans have to die while you claim impeachment has to be done the ‘right way?’” wrote the congresswoman. “My articles have been rotting in committee and now go back on the shelf. Your excuses are pathetic!”
Under President Joe Biden, illegal immigration at the nation's southern border has rapidly increased. Data from the Customs and Border Protection released in October indicated that September had both the highest monthly and annual border encounter rate for any single month in American history. Just over 341,000 illegal immigrants were recorded by CBP in September. CBP reported that roughly 141,300 family units were encountered as were 13,809 unaccompanied minors.
“These totals do not include ‘gotaways,’ which have averaged more than 50,000 per month during the first 32 months of the Biden administration,” said Dan Stein of the Federation for American Immigration Reform. “This exponential increase in illegal immigration makes it clear that it is the open-borders policies of the Biden administration that are driving this national crisis.”
“It is more urgent than ever that Congress step in and retake its plenary control over immigration policy,” Stein added. “We must reverse the administration’s open-borders policies, end the humanitarian crisis it has created, secure our borders, and focus its attention on finding and removing people who have entered illegally.”
CBP reports the total number of encounters with illegal immigrants has surpassed 3.2 million – an almost 500,000 increase from the previous year. The total is five times greater than the total number of encounters during the 2020 fiscal year, which was President Donald Trump’s last full year in office.
Mayorkas has denied accusations of dereliction of duty or of mishandling border security.
"While the House Majority has wasted months trying to score points with baseless attacks, Secretary Mayorkas has been doing his job and working to keep Americans safe," a DHS spokesperson said in a statement, per NPR.
