The US House of Representatives voted on Tuesday against impeaching Democratic President Joe Biden’s top border official, Alejandro Mayorkas.
The call was expected to be tight, and so it proved, as three Republicans ultimately sided with Democrats in a vote that ended 216-214 in the Homeland Security Secretary’s favor.
Mayorkas came under fire from Republican lawmakers who were keen for an impeachment of the Democrat over illegal entries across the United States’ southern border.
Chaotic scene in the House
Given the unified opposition from Democrats, the Republican majority was pressed to secure nearly unanimous support to pass the impeachment vote. It eventually missed the mark by just one vote.
Earlier, chaotic scenes erupted in the House as the vote was deadlocked at 215-215 for a while.
One of the chief sponsors of the impeachment vote, Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, and other Republican lawmakers surrounded Republican Mike Gallagher, who refused to alter his vote.
One of the Republican holdouts, Tom McClintock, said the charges “fail to identify an impeachable crime that Mayorkas has committed.”
‘Policy disagreement masked as an impeachment’
An impeachment would have led to a Senate trial, but Mayorkas was expected to be acquitted by the Democrat-controlled chamber.
The move by the Republicans, criticized as a political stunt by Democrats, highlights the deep policy disagreements over border security in an election year.
Former President and Republican presidential nominee frontrunner Donald Trump has made immigration a major political plank as he prepares for a likely rematch against President Joe Biden in November.
“The failure of the Biden administration to rein in an open border is a national disgrace and will be a stain on his presidential legacy,” Ken Buck, another Republican rebels, wrote in a recent op-ed. “However, the truth is that this is a policy disagreement masked as an impeachment.”
ss/jsi (AFP, AP, Reuters)
