Miami, Florida EFE).-
Eight Republicans in the US House of Representatives on Monday crossed party lines to join a vote that blocked a Republican attempt to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas for alleged negligence in his handling of the border with Mexico.
In a 209-201 vote, lawmakers rejected the resolution brought by Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene against Mayorkas for “high crimes and misdemeanors.”
“In his willful admittance of border crossers, terrorists, human traffickers, drugs, and other contraband, Alejandro Nicholas Mayorkas has failed to maintain operational control of the border, thereby violating the Secure Fence Act of 2006,” cited the Greene resolution.
Eight Republicans voted with Democrats to block the impeachment attempt and send the matter to the Homeland Security Committee for further consideration.
Another dozen or so Republicans did not vote, so their views on the matter were not clear.
In June, a group of Republican legislators launched an investigation against the secretary of Homeland Security for negligence in the performance of his duties on the border with Mexico.
The objective of these investigations, as indicated by Congressman Clay Higgins in a press conference, is to achieve the dismissal of the Democratic politician or his own resignation.
Convicting a secretary in an impeachment trial requires two-thirds of the votes in the Senate (where the impeachment trial takes place, and which currently has a Democratic majority), the same as for a president.
The 62-year-old Mayorkas, who left Cuba with his parents in 1960 after the triumph of the revolution led by Fidel Castro, has in his role faced the overwhelming influx of migrants at the southern border.
According to data from the Customs and Border Protection Office, the US apprehended more than 1.7 million undocumented immigrants who crossed the border from Mexico in fiscal year 2021, surpassing the record of 1986, when 1.69 million people were arrested on the border.
In June, Homeland Security reported that since Title 42, the Trump-era regulation that under the pretext of the pandemic allowed immigrants to be expelled expeditiously at the border, was lifted at the end of May, arrests there have decreased by 70 percent. EFE
