US House Speaker Johnson defeated – for now – on Mayorkas impeachment

WASHINGTON – US House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson suffered a stunning defeat on Feb 6 when Republicans narrowly failed to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

It took just three Republican lawmakers to break from party leaders, arguing that discontent with the secretary did not meet the constitutional threshold for removal from office.

Moments later, Mr Johnson lost a second vote on Israel war aid, underscoring the tentative grasp he holds on the speakership of a small and fractious majority.

Mr Johnson’s spokesman Raj Shah said in a post on the social media platform X that Republicans “fully intend to bring Articles of Impeachment against Secretary Mayorkas back to the floor when we have the votes for passage”.

That vote could come within days.

The Cuban-born Mr Mayorkas, the first immigrant and first Latino to lead the Department of Homeland Security, would have been only the second Cabinet official to be impeached by the House.

The 214-216 vote on Feb 6 came as Republicans charged Mr Mayorkas, 64, with refusing to enforce immigration laws and breaching the public trust in failing to secure the border.

“This baseless impeachment should never have moved forward. It faces bipartisan opposition, and legal experts resoundingly say it is unconstitutional,” Ms Mia Ehrenberg, a Homeland Security spokeswoman, said in a statement.

At the White House, spokesman Ian Sams called the effort a “waste of time” and one of Republicans’ “extreme political stunts.”

Temporary setback

Just as the vote neared its close and Mr Mayorkas appeared on the verge of impeachment, an aide wheeled in Representative Al Green, a Texas Democrat. He wore what appeared to be hospital scrub pants and without shoes on.

Mr Green’s firm “no” on impeachment changed the math and the number of Republicans needed to succeed. After Mr Green voted, Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries approached to shake his hand. Mr Green watched the vote from his wheelchair, and an aide wheeled him back out once it was sealed.

Four Republicans voted with all Democrats against the impeachment articles. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, who is undergoing cancer treatments, was absent.

Mr Johnson is expected to try again when Mr Scalise returns and impeachment would be all but assured. One of the Republicans, Mr Blake Moore of Utah, switched his vote to “no” to avoid a tie vote, allowing Mr Johnson to bring the impeachment articles back up.

A Scalise spokesperson said he would not return to the House on Feb 7. Separately, Republicans face a potential Democratic gain in a special House election on Feb 13 in New York to elect a successor to Mr George Santos, who was expelled in December.

“A delay is what this is,” Republican Mark Green of Tennessee said after the vote.

Mr Ken Buck, a Colorado Republican who has opposed the impeachment, predicted that it ultimately will pass.

Republican leaders are escalating attacks on the Biden administration’s border enforcement record as backlash against surging migration moves to the centre of the presidential campaign.

Yet even some prominent conservative legal scholars have criticised the impeachment articles as inadequate and a break from historic precedent.

Still, House Republican leaders are pressing ahead with an impeachment investigation against President Joe Biden, targeting his son Hunter’s business dealings.

Political lightning rod

The vote on Mr Mayorkas came as a two-day-old bipartisan deal to crack down on illegal border crossings and impose new restrictions on migration was nearing collapse. Republican support faltered after the party’s presidential front-runner, Donald Trump, attacked the deal, arguing the border legislation would be “a great gift for Democrats.”

Immigration has risen to near the top of voters’ election-year concerns, as illegal border crossings soar while inflation eases, unemployment remains low and consumer confidence strengthens.

A tough stance on immigration enforcement has been central to Trump’s political identity throughout his electoral career, and he is again making it a pillar of his presidential campaign. Mr Biden is vulnerable on the issue, with six in 10 swing-state voters saying he bears responsibility for the migration surge, according to a Bloomberg News/Morning Consult poll.

Mr Johnson earlier on Feb 6 said Mr Mayorkas “has engaged in a complete dereliction of duty” and misrepresented facts to Congress, leaving the House with no choice but to impeach him.

“I don’t believe there’s ever been a Cabinet secretary who so blatantly, openly, willfully and without remorse did exactly the opposite of what the federal law requires them to do,” Mr Johnson said. “It’s an extreme measure. But extreme times call for extreme measures.”

Yet, even conservative legal scholars who have defended Trump, including George Washington University Professor Jonathan Turley, criticised the Republican impeachment effort against Mr Mayorkas for not meeting the “high crime and misdemeanours” threshold set in the Constitution.

Charges against Mayorkas

The first article against Mr Mayorkas accuses the secretary of failing to enforce provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act, including parts that mandate detention of immigrants who have crossed the border illegally and limit the president’s use of parole authority to allow entry on a case-by-case basis.

The second article says he violated the “public trust” by telling Congress the border is secure and failing to adequately consider border security alternatives when scrapping some Trump-era initiatives.

Homeland Security has strongly denied the Republican claims, pointing out that no administration has ever detained all immigrants who cross the border illegally. The department also argues that Biden-era immigration parole programmes, while open to large categories of people, still rely on case-by-case approvals.

The only time the House has impeached a Cabinet secretary was 1876, after a congressional committee found evidence Secretary of War William Belknap had been operating a kickback scheme startling even the scandal-tarnished administration of President Ulysses S Grant. Belknap resigned the same day he was impeached and was acquitted after a Senate trial. BLOOMBERG

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