A Republican attempt to impeach Mayorcas failed in the House of Representatives
The Republicans were just a few votes short of eliminating Mayorcas. With Democrats united against impeachment, Republicans needed almost every vote of their slim majority to pass the articles of impeachment. However, some Republican lawmakers refused to follow the party’s plan and voted against the measure.
The surprising result was 214 votes in favor from Republicans and 216 votes against from all Democrats plus 3 Republicans. When the Fourth Republican changed his vote so that the measure could be reviewed later.
Rep. of California. Tom McClintock and Colorado Rep. Ken Buck, both Republicans, kept his word and voted against the measure. Something they already announced they would do. He was joined by Wisconsin’s Mike Gallagher.
Another 214 Republicans in the lower house who voted in favor argued in their impeachment that the secretary has “violated the public trust” and “refused to comply” with immigration laws, which have led to record irregular crossings of immigrants through the border with Mexico. .
A break in the repression against Mallorcas
Rap. Mark Green, R-Tenn., chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, said he was “disappointed” with today’s results, “but we will take another look at it.”
The Republican Party has three vacancies in the lower house following the ouster of George Santos and the departures of Kevin McCarthy and Bill Johnson.
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise was not present at the time of the vote as he continues to recover from a stem cell transplant in Louisiana, so it is expected that he could reach a majority if a new vote is held later.
At the moment, the Republican campaign to punish the Biden administration for its management of the border between the US and Mexico is paralyzed.
border security
This Border security has become a major political issue in this election yearly is being used as a spear in the Republican campaign against Biden.
Democrats believed Republicans were trying to convert Majorcas A scapegoat in the middle of an election year. The move was seen by the Democratic Party as a particularly powerful line of attack against President Biden by Republicans led by the party’s leading candidate for the presidential nomination, Donald Trump.
It was already expected that Democratic representatives would unite against the two articles of impeachment of Mayorcas and at least two Republicans in the lower house would also vote against it, but it was the addition of two other votes against it that supported the measure.
Democrats: Charges against Mayorkas do not warrant impeachment
The figure of impeachment, which until recently was very rare in the United States, has also been used to enforce the Constitution, and increasingly, as a political weapon.
This is a very unusual political trial. Not since 1876 has a cabinet secretary faced impeachment charges and it is the first time a sitting secretary will do so.
According to Democrats, the charges against Mayorcas are false and not impeachable because they do not meet constitutional standards for treason, bribery or “high crimes and misdemeanors.”
“This is a complete waste of time,” Rep. Rep. Joe Negus, D-Colo., said at a Homeland Security Committee hearing Monday before the vote.
For his part, Mayorkas, who was a federal prosecutor, He did not testify on his own behalf, but submitted a letter to the panel defending his work.Something unusual too.
Experts have argued that Mayorcas is simply embroiled in a political dispute with Republicans who disapprove of the Biden administration’s approach to the border situation.
Constitutional law expert Jonathan Turley said that ‘ Impeachment It should not be used for being a “bad cabinet member”.
Lawyer Alan Dershowitz also agrees in this regard: “Regardless of what Mayorkas did or did, he did not commit bribery, treason or high crimes or misdemeanors.”
Alejandro Mayorkas talks to MAC about how his Cuban heritage has marked his career