US House approves impeachment articles against Biden’s top border official

By Reuters 14 February 2024, 3:27 am

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Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas holds a press conference at a US Border Patrol station in Eagle Pass, Texas, on January 08, 2024. (John Moore/Getty Images/AFP)

WASHINGTON — The Republican-controlled US House of Representatives narrowly votes to impeach Democratic President Joe Biden’s top border official, accusing him of lax policies that encouraged illegal immigration.

By a vote of 214-213, the House approves two articles of impeachment accusing Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas of not enforcing US immigration laws, which Republicans argue led to record flows of migrants across the US-Mexico border, and making false statements to Congress.

It comes a week after a similar vote failed in a legislative defeat for Speaker Mike Johnson. Republican Representative Steve Scalise, who had been receiving treatment for cancer, was not present for last week’s vote, but returned to Washington this week, providing a crucial vote.

But it is highly unlikely that the Democratic-majority Senate will vote to oust Mayorkas.

A record number of migrants have illegally crossed the border from Mexico since Biden took office in 2021, and former President Donald Trump has made it a major focus of his campaign against Biden.

Mayorkas has said he does not bear responsibility for the border situation, blaming it instead on a broken US immigration system that Congress has not been able to fix.