The United States House of Representatives approved this Tuesday the first impeachment trial against a member of the Administration in more than 150 years. With a difference of one vote (214 to 213), the Republicans have approved, after the failure of the same vote last week, an impeachment against the Secretary of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas, for alleged neglect of functions in his management of the southern border with Mexico. However, he has no chance of being approved in the Senate, where Democrats have a majority.
Immigration policy has become a central issue of this election year’s campaign, after records of “border encounters” have been set during Joe Biden’s term, that is, arrests of migrants who have crossed the border in a situation irregular. The Border Patrol made 1.73 million apprehensions in 2021, 2.37 million in 2022 and 2.47 million in 2023, according to data from the Department of Homeland Security. These figures do not represent the number of real migrants, but rather the times they have been intercepted.
President Biden has accused Republicans of using this congressional provision for electoral purposes against a member of his administration. “History will not judge House Republicans favorably for their blatant act of unconstitutional partisanship that has targeted an honorable public servant to play petty political games,” he said in a statement.
The constitutional punishment of impeachment had only been used until now against presidents and senior administration officials for cases of treason, corruption or highly serious cases. Democrats accuse Republicans of lowering their standards with an impeachment trial for this reason, for electoral purposes.
In recent weeks, Republicans have blocked the vote on one of the most restrictive immigration pacts in history, which the Democratic and Republican leaders in the Senate had agreed upon after months of negotiation. “The same Republicans who have pushed this baseless impeachment reject the bipartisan plans that Secretary Mayorkas and others in my administration have worked hard on to strengthen border security,” Biden denounced. “Giving up real solutions when they are needed most for politicking is not what the American people expect from their leaders.”
The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mike Johnson, has justified the impeachment by ensuring that Mayorkas “has consciously and consistently refused to comply with immigration laws, which has fueled the worst border catastrophe in US history.” For this reason, he assures that Congress “has the constitutional obligation” to subject him to a political trial, since “along with the declaration of war, impeachment is the greatest power that the Lower House has.”
But Democrats assure that Republicans have not presented evidence that Mayorkas’ conduct constituted “serious crimes,” the standard established in the constitution for carrying out such an impeachment. In this way, they will reject his conviction in the Senate, which would require a two-thirds majority, when the Democrats have a majority in that chamber.
“The only reason for this impeachment trial is for President Johnson to further appease Donald Trump,” Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said in a statement, asserting that Republicans “did not present any evidence of anything resembling a crime that deserves impeachment.”
The Republican congressman who prepared the text of the impeachment, Mark E. Green, has defended the measure as necessary “to defend the constitutional order and hold accountable a public official who has violated his oath of office.” In this way, he added that Mayorkas “has demonstrated beyond a doubt that he has willfully and systematically refused to comply with US laws and has broken the public trust” by allowing migrants to pass through border.
In this Tuesday’s vote, all Democrats voted against, and they were joined by three Republicans, who argued that an impeachment trial against a member of the government for his policies “weakens this weighty constitutional sanction” and “is of no use.” to address the serious problems of immigration. “We have to stop using these impeachments,” said Ken Buck, one of the Republicans who voted against, “if you have political differences, we have other tools. Impeachment has become a partisan game, and constitutional interpretation should be above it.”
