House Democrats, with the help of eight Republicans, voted down an effort led by GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene in the House of Representatives to impeach the Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas in a straight up or down vote.
The eight Republicans join the Democrats in a 209-201 vote that killed the effort with Reps. Ken Buck, R-Colo., Darrell Issa, R-Calif., Tom McClintock, R-Calif., Patrick McHenry, RN.C., John Duarte, R-Calif. ., Virginia Foxx, RN.C., Cliff Bentz, R-Ore., and Mike Turner, R-Ohio.
Additionally, 11 Democrats and 12 Republicans abstained from voting on the measure.
Greene expressed his displeasure in a video posted on Xsaying that eight Republicans voted to “protect” Mayorkas from impeachment, which he called, “unbelievable.”
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Pictured from left to right: Rep. Virginia Foxx, RN.C., Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, and Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif. (Getty Images)
“We had eight Republicans vote with the Democrats to send my articles of impeachment back to committee where the articles of impeachment would die,” Greene said.
The office of Rep. McClintock the Fox News Digital in a press release explaining that “the grounds for impeachment are expressly laid out in the Constitution” and that the charges against Mayorkas do not meet the threshold even though Mayorkas is “the worst cabinet secretary in American history.”
“Yes, Alejandro Mayorkas must be held accountable for his failures – there is no doubt about that. By giving the Judiciary Committee, under Chairman Jordan’s leadership, the opportunity to conduct a full-scale impeachment inquiry in the proper manner, the House Republicans are keeping the promises we made to the American people and rising to a level the Democrats never could,” said Rep. Foxx in a press release after his vote.
“Secretary Mayorkas did not commit an impeachable offense,” said Rep. Buck on CNN on Monday night. “I strongly disagree with how he’s handling the border, I think the border is full of holes, I think it’s a threat to this country, but it’s not a high crime or a misdemeanor, it’s it’s not treason, it’s not bribery, it’s not the crimes or issues our founders set out in the Constitution.”
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas speaks at a news conference Wednesday, May 10, 2023, ahead of the repeal of Title 42. (AP Photo/Kevin Wolf)
In a statement to Fox News Digital, Rep. denied. Turner that Republicans voted to “kill” an impeachment and that the motion was referred to the Committee on Homeland Security for proper fact-finding.
“No one voted to kill an impeachment inquiry – there is an ongoing investigation into Secretary Mayorkas in the House of Representatives. Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene’s resolution was referred to an ongoing investigation by the Homeland Security Committee under Chairman Mark Green,” Turner said. “Once his investigation is complete, he can at any time refer the fully documented Articles of Impeachment to the House, which will pass overwhelmingly.”
Rep. Isa issued a statement saying Mayorkas “deserves to face an impeachment trial” and posted on social media that he “can’t wait to testify.”
“We didn’t kill a Mayorkas impeachment,” Issa told Fox News Digital. “We voted to begin impeachment hearings that the whole country will watch. If we impeach Mayorkas now, Senate Democrats will be free to reject it now. We want hearings where Democrats are forced go on the record and finally have to defend Biden’s historic border disaster. That’s the last thing they want.”
Greene introduced the resolution to impeach Mayorkas on Thursday, which would have forced an impeachment vote without a hearing or committee markup. If voted and passed, it would have led directly to his impeachment the Senate for testing.
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A family of five who say they are from Guatemala and a man who says he is from Peru walk in the desert after crossing the border wall in the Tucson Sector of the US-Mexico border, Tuesday, Aug. 29, 2023. (AP Photo/Matt York)
The Department of Homeland Security responded to the vote with a statement accusing Congress of “wasting its time,” and calling on it to “do its job by funding the government, reforming our broken system of immigration, reauthorizing essential tools for DHS, and passing the Administration additional requests to leverage the Department’s critical work to stop fentanyl and further secure our borders.”
Mayorkas has faced intense scrutiny from Republicans over his record, which includes leadership record levels of illegal immigration which includes more than 600,000 “gotaways” at the southern border in fiscal year 2023 and more than 900,000 illegal immigrants released to the interior of the United States by the Border Patrol in FY 2023.
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Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene. (Fox News Digital/Jon Michael Raasch)
“The truth is he’s just not living up to his oath,” GOP Rep. Anthony D’Esposito told Fox News Digital in June. “He didn’t just fail the administration, he failed the American people. And that’s my biggest concern.”
Brandon Gillespie and Chad Pergram of Fox News Digital contributed to this report
