Eight House Republicans assisted Democrats in thwarting an attempt by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga. to start impeachment procedures against Department of Homeland Security secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
Greene presented the resolution to impeach Mayorkas last week. She proposed a vote that would not include the usual hearing or committee marking. This resolution would have accelerated the impeachment procedure by sending the case to the Senate directly for trial.
The eight Republicans who sided with the Democrats are Reps. Ken Buck (R-Colo.), Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), Tom McClintock (R-Calif.), Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.), John Duarte, (R-Calif.), Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.), Cliff Bentz (R-Ore.), and Mike Turner (R-Ohio). The final vote was 209-201 against impeachment. Twenty-four members, evenly split between Democrats and Republicans, didn’t vote.
Mayorkas is under investigation for his handling of the southern border. Biden’s administration, after inheriting a border that was secure, instituted open-borders policies. This created a security and humanitarian crisis. Biden’s administration was criticized for a migrant facility overflow and the treatment of immigrant kids in poor conditions. In addition to the influx of fentanyl, this crisis also saw an unknown number of migrant child sex trafficked. Mayorkas also punished Border Patrol agents for whippings that he knew had never happened. He was accused of lying to Congress under oath.
McCarthy, then-Speaker of the House at the time, called on Mayorkas a year earlier to resign.
“Our country might never recover from the dereliction by Secretary Mayorkas.” McCarthy stated at the time, “Today I call on the Secretary to resign.” If Secretary Mayorkas doesn’t resign then House Republicans will investigate each order, action, and failure. We will also determine if we can start an impeachment investigation.
Mayorkas denied that there was a border crisis on numerous occasions. In September, the number of migrants who crossed the border at the southernmost point reached a record high.
Mayorkas refused to resign, despite numerous requests to do so. It has been made very clear that the Republican Party is responsible for holding him accountable. It is amazing that the Republican Party has not united to hold Mayorkas responsible for the border crisis.
The Department of Homeland Security reacted to the vote by calling it a waste of their time, a “baseless assault [that] has no merit at all and is a distraction from our important national security priorities.”
