U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas holds a press conference at a U.S. Border Patrol station on January 08, 2024 in Eagle Pass, Texas.
n a dramatic embarrassment for Republicans, the House on Tuesday narrowly rejected impeachment charges against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas over his handling of the southern border after a small group of Republicans broke with their party.
In the end, four Republicans and all Democrats voted against impeachment. It was a stunning scene on the House floor, as Republicans kept the vote open for several minutes as Democrats cheered. Rep. Tom McClintock, a California Republican who voted against the effort, criticized his party for “bad politics and bad policy” in a statement on Tuesday."The problem is that they fail to identify an impeachable crime that Mayorkas has committed," McClintock wrote.
Mayorkas pushed back against these claims in a letter to the House committee investigating him on Jan. 30, noting his efforts to increase deportation flights, upgrade technology used to detect fentanyl, and restrict asylum access for migrants who bypass legal pathways to the U.S. “Undoubtedly, we have policy disagreements on the historically divisive issue of immigration," Mayorkas said.