House Republicans impeach Secretary Mayorkas with no proof of crimes or misdemeanors

House Republicans impeached Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Feb. 13 by a vote of 214-213, one week after their first attempt failed by a single vote. But without any evidence of any crime committed, members of both parties say there is no chance Mayorkas will be convicted by the U.S. Senate.

The articles of impeachment, authored by Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, did not allege any actual illegal acts, instead accusing Mayorkas of “willful and systemic refusal to comply with the law” and “breach of the public trust.”

All 210 House Democrats present and Republican Reps. Ken Buck (CO), Mike Gallagher (WI), and Tom McClintock (CA) voted no. McClintock told colleagues in a Feb. 6 letter that Greene’s articles of impeachment “fail to identify an impeachable crime that Mayorkas has committed.”

Many of the lawmakers voting to impeach Mayorkas had previously voted against the 2019 impeachment of President Donald Trump on charges of obstruction of Congress and abuse of power relating to his attempts to withhold security funds from Ukraine in an effort to pressure its government to dig up dirt on his political rivals and the 2021 Trump impeachment on charges of inciting the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. They dismissed those impeachments as divisive, partisan, and a waste of time.

Wisconsin Republican Reps. Scott Fitzgerald, Glenn Grothman, Bryan Steil, Tom Tiffany, and Derrick Van Orden all voted in favor of impeaching Mayorkas.

Van Orden was not yet in Congress in 2019 or 2021; all of the others opposed the Trump impeachments. 

“I think what you see is the whole impeachment process, it has exacerbated the partisanship in Washington, D.C.,” Steil told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel after the 2019 impeachment. “I voted against impeachment. I’d rather that we weren’t in this process in the first place.”

Mayorkas is the first Cabinet secretary to be impeached since 1876.

The articles of impeachment now move on to the Senate, where a two-thirds majority would be required to convict him and remove him from office. 

Senators in both parties agree that that will not happen.

“House Republicans failed to produce any evidence that Secretary Mayorkas has committed any crime,” said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer in a Feb. 13 statement. “House Republicans failed to show he has violated the Constitution. House Republicans failed to present any evidence of anything resembling an impeachable offense. This is a new low for House Republicans.”

Asked by the Washington Examiner on Feb. 6 if he would support an impeachment trial, West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin said, “Absolutely not, that’s ridiculous.” Noting he believed there would be a majority in favor of immediately dismissing the charges, he added: “I just want to get rid of it as quick as possible. You go down that path, that’s a slippery slope. You would never stop.”

The Senate can dismiss impeachment proceedings by a simple majority vote.

North Dakota Republican Sen. Kevin Cramer told HuffPost on Feb. 6 that the impeachment was “the dumbest exercise and use of time” and called it “obviously dead on arrival” in the Senate.

In January, several Senate Republicans told Axios that they were not on board with impeaching Mayorkas.

“We have some things to do. I’d like us all to be working really fast on appropriations,” Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski told the outlet.

“From what I can tell, he’s carrying out the policies of his boss, the president, for which you don’t impeach the secretary,” said Utah Sen. Mitt Romney.

Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville told Axios that impeachment of anyone other than Biden was a waste of time.