Story highlights
Republicans have been investigating DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas’ handling of the border.
GOP lawmakers are planning to do a whip check this week on whether to impeach Mayorkas.
Some legal scholars have poured cold water on the GOP’s legal arguments.
CNN
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House Republicans voted early Wednesday to advance their impeachment articles against Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, moving closer to taking the rare step of impeaching a Cabinet official.
The move sets up a vote on the articles by the full House of Representatives, though the date of that vote has not yet been set.
The House Homeland Security Committee considered its resolution claiming Mayorkas has committed high crimes and misdemeanors for his handling of the southern border, even though a number of constitutional experts have said the evidence does not reach that high bar.
The controversial move would make Mayorkas the first Cabinet secretary to be impeached in nearly 150 years.
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.
The impeachment articles passed out of the House Homeland Security Committee along party lines. Republicans and Democrats on the panel debated the impeachment articles against Mayorkas for approximately 15 hours until Republicans ended the debate by blocking Democrats from introducing any further amendments.
While Republicans have been investigating Mayorkas’ handling of the border since they reclaimed the House majority, their impeachment inquiry has moved swiftly in the new year. House Speaker Mike Johnson has promised to move the articles of impeachment against Mayorkas to the floor quickly, and has signaled he will reject a bipartisan deal being negotiated in the Senate that would address border policies.
While senior House Republicans are confident they have the support to impeach the DHS secretary, they can lose only two votes given their narrow majority. Republicans are planning a whip check this week to take the temperature of the conference, a GOP source told CNN.
House GOP Whip Tom Emmer told CNN ahead of the markup that he is counting votes, but added: “We are going to have to pass that. I mean, it’s pretty egregious what he’s done.”
House Homeland Security Chairman Mark Green of Tennessee has been meeting with some of the remaining GOP holdouts, such as Rep. Ken Buck of Colorado, and has issued a number of memos on Mayorkas in recent weeks, according to GOP sources. Green presented his case to senior Republicans during a closed-door meeting Monday night, telling CNN afterward that “nobody had any questions or dissent.”
In a sign of growing momentum for the effort, GOP swing district Rep. Don Bacon said he will vote to impeach Mayorkas. But Washington Rep. Dan Newhouse, another moderate House Republican lawmaker, was less definitive.
“I want to hear all of the arguments for it. I understand that there is quite a groundswell of support for it, and I want to just understand it totally,” Newhouse said.
Ahead of the markup, Green outlined his case for why Mayorkas should be impeached.
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