Mayorkas avoids impeachment as House Republicans fail to muster votes

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Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas escaped history Tuesday after House Republicans failed to muster enough support within their ranks to impeach him.

Three Republicans joined Democrats in opposing impeachment, which resulted in a tie vote. One Republican — Majority Leader Steve Scalise — was missing, and Republican members said they hope to have him back on Capitol Hill to hold a revote soon.

For now, the failure stands as a black eye for House Speaker Mike Johnson, who also saw his attempt to pass military aid for Israel fall short just moments after the impeachment debacle.

“This sham impeachment vote failed because it had no foundation in the Constitution. It failed because the secretary has committed no ‘high crime or misdemeanor.’ It failed because impeachment would do nothing to secure the border,” said Rep. Bennie G. Thompson of Mississippi, who led Democrats’ defense.

The final tally was 214-216, though one of those “No” votes was a Republican who supported the impeachment and changed his vote as a parliamentary tactic to allow a do-over. The tally would have been 215-215, still a failure.

With Mr. Scalise present, the Republican hopes to prevail by a single vote.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, the Georgia Republican who has been the most outspoken proponent of impeaching Mr. Mayorkas, also said she hopes the three Republicans who backed Mr. Mayorkas get an earful from their constituents.

“This is not over yet,” she told reporters.

Still, the failure stung.

“A resounding betrayal of the American people,” Rep. Nancy Mace, South Carolina Republican, said on social media. “Now, members are ON THE RECORD, shamefully choosing to snub the will of the people.”

The White House crowed over the failure.

“House Republicans ought to realize that extreme political stunts like this are a waste of time, and instead join the President, Secretary Mayorkas, and Republicans and Democrats who want to work together to deliver real solutions that actually strengthen border security,” said Ian Sams, a presidential spokesperson.

Republican lawmakers said Mr. Mayorkas earned the ignominy of impeachment for lying to the public and intentionally subverting immigration enforcement laws.

They said it was the inevitable outcome of three years of chaos, millions of illegal immigrants caught and released into communities overwhelmed by the demands, and tens of thousands of overdose deaths from fentanyl sneaked across the border.

“He is a sheep in sheep’s clothing, and the cartel wolves and our enemies around the world are circling. This impeachment is richly deserved, and we must fire this bum, this second coming of Benedict Arnold,” said Rep. Pat Fallon, Texas Republican.

Democrats said none of the Republican anger at Mr. Mayorkas rises to the level of high crimes and misdemeanors the Constitution demands for impeachment.

“This could be the first time in American history an impeachment could go to the floor of the United States House of Representatives with no evidence, no proof, no elements of a crime — nothing at all,” Rep. Jim McGovern, Massachusetts Democrat, said ahead of the vote.

Even if Republicans succeeded, the effort was expected to stall in the Senate, where it takes a two-thirds vote to convict and remove an officer. Given Democrats’ control of the upper chamber and some Republican senators’ opposition to impeachment, it was possible the Senate wouldn’t have even held a trial. 

Tuesday’s vote created a striking split-screen, with House Republicans failing on impeachment. On the other side of the Capitol, Republican senators were announcing they would sink the bipartisan border security deal they had spent the past four months negotiating.

Mr. Mayorkas was part of those negotiations, and he argued that proved he was working on solutions in good faith.

The bill was anathema to House Republicans and served only to heighten their demand for a change at the head of Homeland Security.

“The kind of damage he’s done to our cities and our families is something you’d expect from a hostile foreign adversary looking to destabilize and destroy America,” said Rep. Beth Van Duyne, Texas Republican.

Mr. Mayorkas has now survived two impeachment votes.

The first, forced by Ms. Greene in November, fell shy when eight Republicans joined Democrats in derailing it.

Some of those Republicans reversed course Tuesday, but three remained opposed: Reps. Ken Buck of Colorado, Mike Gallagher of Wisconsin and Tom McClintock of California.

Mr. McClintock is chairman of the House’s primary immigration policy subcommittee. His opposition was particularly difficult for Republicans, especially after he released a 10-page memo eviscerating the effort as misguided and counter to the Constitution.

He said the Republicans were using the same logic as Democrats in their impeachments of then-President Trump by pursuing a case when there was no underlying crime.

“We must never allow the left to become our teachers, for theirs is a world of situational ethics and fluid law, toxic to a constitutional republic founded on the rule of law,” Mr. McClintock said.

“Republicans don’t need to abuse the Constitution in order to prove our commitment to restore control of our border,” he added.

Mr. Buck said there’s palpable anger among voters over the border.

“When I go home, people are just furious about it. They don’t see this as ‘This is constitutional, this is not’ — they want something done,” he said.

He said the House has other tools available, including the power of the purse, to try to force changes in immigration policy without resorting to impeachment.

Rep. Blake Moore, Utah Republican, backed impeachment but switched his vote to preserve the right for a do-over later. In doing so, he was helping the impeachment effort, but conservative social media still erupted in anger, tying him to the other three.

Democrats outsmarted Republicans in the voting.

Throughout the day, as other votes occurred, Democrats held back one of their members so Republicans didn’t know that all 215 Democrats were present.

All the Democrats voted, upending the Republicans’ math and making Mr. Scalise’s absence the deciding factor in the failure.

Congress has impeached a Cabinet official, one of President Grant’s war secretaries, in 1876. But that came after William Belknap had already resigned in anticipation of the vote.

The Senate voted to acquit Belknap, with some senators arguing he was beyond their purview now that he was out of office.

Mr. Mayorkas was supposed to be the easy impeachment target for Republicans, who are also pursuing an inquiry against President Biden. Republican leaders figured the border numbers alone made their case against the secretary.

In December 2020, the last full month under President Trump, the Border Patrol made 71,141 arrests at the U.S.-Mexico boundary. Nearly every one of those was detained or ousted.

In December 2023, the Border Patrol nabbed 249,785 migrants at the southern boundary. Agents say more than 85% of them were released.

For the four years under Mr. Trump, agents detected just 11 illegal immigrants on the terrorist watchlist coming across the southern border. On Mr. Mayorkas’ watch, that has surged to 331.

Democrats countered that Mr. Mayorkas was doing what he could with the tools the law allowed him.

“Secretary Mayorkas is a good man, a patriotic man and a hard-working man doing the very best he can under very difficult circumstances,” said Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, New York Democrat. “That’s not an impeachable offense.”

That’s also the strong consensus of much of the legal community — even scholars who, several years ago, said no crime was needed to impeach Mr. Trump.

“This is not about Secretary Mayorkas. This is straight-up sabotage,” said Rep. Eric Swalwell, California Democrat. “MAGA Republicans have never accepted President Biden as the president from the day they led an insurrection in this chamber to this day when they’re trying to sabotage solutions at the border.”