House Republicans impeached Biden’s senior border officer: On Tuesday, it took a close vote in the U.S. House of Representatives to remove President Joe Biden’s top border official, a Democrat. Immigration is expected to be a big problem in this year’s elections.

By a vote of 214–213, the House approved two articles of impeachment against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. The articles say Mayorkas lied to Congress and didn’t follow U.S. immigration rules, which Republicans say caused record numbers of people to cross the U.S.-Mexico border.

On this vote, the House removed a member of the president’s cabinet. It was only the second time in U.S. history and the first time in almost 150 years. Chuck Schumer, the Democratic leader of the Senate, said that senators would be sworn in as juries soon after they return from break on February 26.

The Democratic-led chamber is not expected to vote to remove Mayorkas from office, though.

Since Biden took office in 2021, a record number of people have crossed the border illegally from Mexico. Former President Trump used this issue as a prominent campaign issue against Biden.

The vote on Tuesday undid an embarrassing loss for Speaker Mike Johnson in the legislature last week, when a similar move failed. Last week, Republican Representative Steve Scalise missed the vote because he was getting cancer treatment. On Tuesday, he cast the winning vote.

It’s only 219–212 in favor of Republicans in the House.

“Secretary Mayorkas has willfully and consistently refused to comply with federal immigration laws, fueling the worst border catastrophe in American history,” Johnson said after the vote.

A study by Reuters and Ipsos last month found that, after the economy, immigration was the second-most crucial issue for voters.

REPUBLICAN DISSENT

On Tuesday, no Democrats voted for impeachment, but three Republicans—Representatives Ken Buck, Tom McClintock, and Mike Gallagher—went against their leaders and voted against it. Their vote last week was also against impeachment. To get the bill back for another vote later, a fourth Republican, Blake Moore, also voted “no” last week.

Mayorkas has said he is not to blame for what is happening at the border. Instead, he says that the problem is with the U.S. immigration system, which Congress has been unable to resolve.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, Mia Ehrenberg, said in a statement, “House Republicans have falsely smeared a dedicated public servant who has spent more than 20 years enforcing our laws and serving our country…without a shred of evidence or legitimate constitutional grounds.”

Some Republicans and experts on the Constitution have said that the House probe into Mayorkas did not find any proof of the “high crimes and misdemeanors” that the U.S. Constitution says are reasons to remove a president. They said the fight was only about “policy disputes.”

“History will not look kindly on House Republicans for their blatant act of unconstitutional partisanship that has targeted an honorable public servant in order to play petty political games,” Biden stated in a statement.

On Tuesday, U.S. Customs and Border Protection said that the number of people caught crossing the southern border illegally dropped by 50% in January from a high point in December. They said this was due to seasonal changes and more action by the U.S. and its partner countries.

A week after Trump pushed conservative Senate Republicans to oppose a bipartisan border security accord, the House impeachment vote was on Tuesday. Mitch McConnell, the Senate Republican Leader, claimed the proposal would have been the most significant border security overhaul in decades.

On Tuesday, Speaker of the House John Rose said, “House Republicans are largely in this fight to secure our national borders all by ourselves.” “Democrats like the job he’s doing, or should I say not doing,” Rose said to support removing Mayorkas from office.

William Belknap, Grant’s secretary of defense, was the final Cabinet secretary fired for corruption in 1876. The Senate found him not guilty.

The House impeached Trump twice under Democrats, but the Senate acquitted him under Republicans.

House Republicans are investigating whether Biden’s pre-presidential acts were high crimes or misdemeanors that might lead to impeachment. Some Republicans have said they haven’t seen any proof of this yet.