Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday accused President Joe Biden's immigration secretary Alejandro Mayorkas of inciting the crisis along the U.S.-Mexico border.
This is the first time in nearly 150 years that the Congress has decided such a sanction against a minister. But given the Democratic majority in the Senate, his impeachment is highly unlikely.
Conservatives had already tried to impeach him a week ago, but missed out by a handful of votes in a humiliating referendum.
“He is the chief architect of disaster,” Mike Johnson, the Republican leader of the House of Representatives, who decided the fate of the 64-year-old minister in the evening, had earlier accused.
Biden condemned
Joe Biden quickly responded, condemning in a press release what he called “a blatant act of political politicking targeting an honorable public servant.”
“Instead of dangling carrots like this, Republicans who really care about the border should be asking Congress for more resources and strengthening border security,” the 81-year-old Democrat blasted.
The chances of Alejandro Mayorgas being removed from office at the end of this impeachment process are slim, but the situation remains a headache for Joe Biden with less than nine months to go before the presidential election.
Republicans, many of them with anti-immigration rhetoric very close to former President Donald Trump, accuse the Democratic president of allowing the country to “invade,” citing record numbers of immigrants apprehended at the border as an example. , 302,000 in December.
Immigration, the main subject of the campaign
Democrats shun the practice, while Republicans accuse it of scapegoating the minister in the middle of an election year.
Immigration has emerged as one of the key issues in the campaign for November's presidential election, which will pit President Joe Biden against his Republican rival, Donald Trump.
Alejandro Mayorkas, the key figure involved, has repeatedly rejected the Republicans' accusations, accusing them of “wasting precious time and taxpayers' money.”
The last impeachment against a minister by the Congress was in… 1876. William Belknap, the Secretary of War who was accused of corruption, resigned before the impeachment proceedings were completed.
The Constitution provides that Congress can impeach the president, ministers, or federal judges in cases of “treason, corruption, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.”
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