U.S. Lawmakers House of Representatives have impeached Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas at a second attempt.
Mayorkas was removed in a tight vote of 214-213 on Tuesday, as the Republican-led House blamed President Joe Biden’s immigration chief for a surge in illegal entries from Mexico. The impeachment helps to set the stage for November’s presidential elections, which Republicans hope to centre on the border issue.
Lawmakers passed two articles that accused Mayorkas of “willful and systemic refusal” to enforce immigration law and “breach of public trust”. The Democrat is the first cabinet secretary to be impeached in nearly 150 years.
The move by Republican leaders followed closely on the heels of a failed attempt last week to remove Mayorkas. Having wrongly anticipated how many lawmakers would be present on each side, they had lost by one vote.
US President Joe Biden called the move, the latest in a series of Republican attacks on his administration, a “political stunt”.
“History will not look kindly on House Republicans for their blatant act of unconstitutional partisanship that has targeted an honourable public servant,” he said.
Biden highlighted Mayorkas’s backstory. A Cuban immigrant who came to the US with his family as a political refugee, he spent more than two decades “serving America with integrity in a decorated career” that saw him work as a US attorney in the Justice Department before becoming Secretary of Homeland Security, the president said.
