WASHINGTON – The House of Representatives is expected to vote again effort impeachment Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas failed after a Republican bid this week.
On Friday, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., announced that a second impeachment vote would be held Tuesday night. Mallorca survived the first attempt this week by a vote of 214-216.
Republicans are trying to topple Majorca over him US-Mexico border management.
On Tuesday, all Democrats and three Republicans — Ken Buck of Colorado, Tom McClintock of California and Mike Gallagher of Wisconsin — voted against impeachment. Rep. Blake Moore, R-Utah, the vice chairman of the GOP conference, also rejected the measure, but allowed Republicans to bring the bill up again under procedural rules.
Scalise is expected to return to Washington after passing next week treatment of blood cancer. One of the reasons why Republicans fell behind in Tuesday’s vote was his absence.
With Scalise’s support and all members voting, House Republicans could lose three votes on a resolution of impeachment. The absence of any GOP members could jeopardize the transition.
Republicans also face the prospect of Democrats winning Tuesday’s special election in New York’s 3rd Congressional District to win a seat in the House of Representatives. The seat was opened when former MP George Santos was expelled between the federal indictment and the Ethics Committee investigation in December.
Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La. and House Republicans have criticized the Biden administration’s handling of border security, noting that illegal migrant crossings have been recorded at the southwest border. it was more than 10,000 per day in December.
The House Homeland Security Committee last month voted along the party line to propose two articles of impeachment Against Mallorca.
The first article accuses Mayorkas of “deliberately and systematically” refusing to comply with federal immigration laws, allowing “millions” of migrants to enter the country illegally and “many to remain in the United States illegally.”
The second article alleges that Mayorkas “breached the public trust” by making false statements to Congress and knowingly obstructing congressional oversight of his agency.
On Friday, DHS did not comment on the upcoming vote, but earlier the memo criticized impeachment effortscalling it a “farce” and “a distraction from other important national security priorities and the work Congress needs to do to truly fix our broken immigration laws.”
White House stands by Mayorkas, calling GOP impeachment effort “far, far-right politics“and” unconstitutional.
Rebecca Kaplan reported from Washington, DC and Zoe Richards reported from New York.