Washington — Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas narrowly survived an impeachment vote on Tuesday in the House after a small group of Republicans helped sink the GOP-led effort.
The House voted 216 to 214 against impeaching Mayorkas over his handling of the U.S.-Mexico border, with four Republicans voting with all Democrats.
Republicans who voted against the impeachment resolution said Mayorkas’ conduct did not rise to the level of an impeachable offense and warned about the precedent the vote would set.
Rep. Tom McClintock, a California Republican, said Tuesday morning that the impeachment articles “fail to identify an impeachable crime that Mayorkas has committed” and “stretch and distort the Constitution in order to hold the administration accountable for stretching and distorting the law.”
Democrats accused Republicans of using the impeachment push to score political points ahead of the 2024 election, with immigration being a top voter concern. They also argued that it failed to meet the bar of a high crime or misdemeanor, a criticism shared by legal experts on both sides of the aisle.
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