JUST IN: GOP-led House impeaches Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas (2024)

The GOP-led House has voted to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. He is the first Cabinet secretary to be impeached in nearly 150 years.

The vote tally was 214 to 213.Three Republicans voted with Democrats against the measure.

This comes after House Republicans failed to impeach Mayorkas in a vote last week. The absence of House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, and the surprise attendance by Texas Democrat Al Green, who had just had surgery and was wheeled into the chamber to vote, denied Republicans the votes to pass when it came up previously.

House Republicans claim Mayorkas has committed high crimes and misdemeanors for his handling of the southern border, even thoughseveralconstitutional experts have said the evidence does not reach that high bar.

The impeachment effort comes as House Republicans have faced building pressure from their base to hold the Biden administration accountable on a key campaign issue: the border.

What happens next: It is highly unlikely that Mayorkas will be charged in the Democratic-controlled Senate. Senate Democrats are still weighing how to respond on Mayorkas' impeachment: to Move ahead with a trial, or move to dismiss it quickly given their view that it’s blatantly political.

Here's a breakdown of the vote:

The House is now voting on a resolution to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

This is the second attempt by House GOP members to impeach Mayorkas after suffering a massive and public defeat whena similar vote failedlast week.

If approved, Mayorkas would become the first Cabinet secretary to be impeached in nearly 150 years.

GOP Whip Tom Emmer projected confidence that the Republican conference will have the votes to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

"We have the votes," he said.

Earlier, CNN reported that Republican leaders are confident that they will have the votes to pass the resolution, according to sources.

More background: If approved, Mayorkas would become the first Cabinet secretary to be impeached in nearly 150 years. Also, even if the resolution passes, it is highly unlikely that Mayorkas will be charged in the Democratic-controlled Senate.

President Joe Biden's Homeland Security secretary is accused of committing high crimes and misdemeanors in his handling of the southern border, even though constitutional experts have said the evidence does not reach that high bar.

The House majority leader is defending Speaker Mike Johnson’s decision to holdlast week’s failed vote on impeaching Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, telling CNN in an interview the vote was a “tough judgment call” and that it may have helped lock in GOP lawmakers on the fence.

Scalise missed last week’s impeachment vote which failed in an embarrassing defeat, 214-216, with three House Republicans voting against it. But the majority leader is back in Washington on Tuesday and in “complete remission” following successful stem cell treatment for a form of blood cancer.

The vote is happening on the same night that New York is holding a special election to replace expelled former Republican Rep. George Santos, giving Democrats the opportunity to make the GOP’s razor-thin majority in the House even tighter.

If House Republicans can muster the simple majority of votes they need toimpeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, it will be an unprecedented moment in US history.

While there was one previous Cabinet official to be impeached by the House, the circ*mstances of that scandal, featuring Secretary of War William Belknap in 1876, are so different as to defy comparison, except in one way: Belknap was acquitted by the Senate as Mayorkas almost certainly would be.

Belknap was impeached for corrupt kickbacks: The most important difference between Belknap and Mayorkas is the purpose of their respective impeachment cases.

As everyone should remember from the two impeachments and Senate acquittals of former President Donald Trump, the Constitution’simpeachment clauseallows for the removal of a federal official from office and bars that individual from office in the future for “Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.”

Belknap served during the so-called Gilded Age of US politics, and his crime was the corrupt financing of an extravagant lifestyle in the nation’s capital. He took kickbacks from a person he appointed to lead a trading post in Oklahoma.

GOP is targeting Mayorkas' policy: Thearticles of impeachment against Mayorkas, on the other hand, outline policy differences rather than corruption, bribery or another crime. Republicans disagree with the administration’s approach at the border and argue that Mayorkas is not enforcing the laws.

Read more on how unusual this impeachment is

The House GOP’s renewed attempt to impeach Homeland Security Secretary AlejandroMayorkasTuesday night hinges on the potential absences in the chamber.

Due to snow impacting regions of the US, members in both parties could miss the vote — impacting the vote count.

GOP leadership is expected to hold a vote on another matter first in the 6:30 p.m. ET vote series to gauge the absences, Republican sources said.

If there are too many absences, Republicans will consider delaying the vote — a risky move given the outcome of the New York special election could affect the vote total if it is delayed.

The House vote to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas failed on February 6, a stunning blow to House Republicans who had pushed the effort as a key political goal.

The House vote was 214-216. Three Republicans, Colorado Rep. Ken Buck, Wisconsin Rep. Mike Gallagher and California Rep. Tom McClintock, joined the Democrats in voting against the resolution.

GOP Rep. Blake Moore joined the "no" side to allow the House GOP to bring up the vote again.

Even though House Republicans suffered a massive defeat, GOP leaders said they planned to bring up the vote again.

House Homeland Security chairman Mark Green framed the failed vote as merely a delay in the process and said the House would vote when Majority Leader Steve Scalise returns from receiving cancer treatments.

Given the narrow margins, Republicans could only afford to lose a handful of votes – and a surprise move by Democratic Rep. Al Green of Texas to return from surgery to vote changed the margins at the 11th hour to make it impossible for Republicans to garner enough support.

Green was wheeled onto the House floor at the last minute with no shoes to vote against impeaching Mayorkas, a shocking loss for Republicans, sources told CNN.

Even Republicans acknowledged that Democrats waiting to reveal Green’s presence was well played.

Here's how each House member voted last week on the impeachment.

The House will bring back up articles of impeachment for Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Tuesday, according to the floor schedule, as House Majority Leader Steve Scalise is expected to return and deliver the necessary votes to get the effort over the finish line.

The resolution failed last week in an embarrassing defeat, with three House Republicans voting against it. But GOP leaders are confident they’ll have enough support when Scalise — who has been out receiving treatments for cancer — comes back.

The Tuesday vote timing is notable because it comes ahead of a special election to fill the seat vacated by Rep. George Santos, which could reduce the GOP’s thin margins even further if Democrats flip the seat.

So Republicans are eager to push this through as soon as possible. But, given how tenuous the majority is, nothing is certain.

Thespecial electionto replace former Rep.George Santosin New York’s 3rd Congressional District, an emerging battleground that could serve as a bellwether for other suburbs this fall, appears to be headed for a neck-and-neck finish after two months of campaigning bolstered by millions in outside spending.

The district, which encompasses Nassau County on Long Island and northeast Queens, is largely well-educated and affluent — the kind of place Democrats now expect to win — but because of its ideological diversity, a recent trend toward the GOP and a deeply rooted county Republican Party machine, it has become a true Election Day wild card.

Tuesday’s outcome could provide lessons for both parties as the general election season nears and both the presidential contest and the race for control of the House are expected to turn, in large part, on the views of suburban voters.

In the near term, victory for Democrat Tom Suozzi, who previously represented the district in Congress after running Nassau County for most of the 2000s, would provide a lift for President Joe Biden — who won the district by 8 points in 2020 — and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of Brooklyn, who will likely need the seat if he’s to become speaker next year.

Victory for Republican Mazi Pilip, a largely unknown county legislator from Great Neck, would signal the potential for more GOP gains across the country — and provide some comfort to a slate of freshmen GOP House members from New York who will be defending their seats in November.

As House Republicans aim to garner enough support to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas Tuesday evening, eyes will also be on the special election in case the resolution to impeach is delayed. If a Democrat wins, then the GOP majority in the House will reduce further.

Read more about the New York special election.