The Republicans in the House of Representatives believe that Alejandro Mayorkas is responsible for a record number of migrants crossing the border between the United States and Mexico.
Security Minister Alejandro Mayorkas (tv), Foreign Minister Anthony Blinken and President Joe Biden during a meeting in the White House in November. Photo: ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / AFP / NTB
Wednesday 14 February at 03:00
- The vote ended very evenly: 214 representatives voted for the security minister to be impeached, while 213 voted against.
According to Washington Post This is the first time in 150 years that the House of Representatives has voted to impeach a sitting minister in the US administration.
Alejandro Mayorkas is security minister under President Joe Biden, and is responsible for security within the United States.
The Republicans have a very narrow majority in the House of Representatives, and were dependent on almost everyone in the party voting in favor. That did not happen last week, when they failed in their attempt to impeach Mayorkas.
What is impeachment?
- The US impeachment court is a court-like process tasked with dealing with accusations against high-ranking officials, ministers, judges and presidents.
- The US constitution, for example, states that a president can be impeached for treason, bribery or other crimes, or misdemeanors related to the abuse of political power.
- With a simple majority, the House of Representatives can decide to indict an official.
- Then a two-thirds majority is needed in the Senate to convict the person concerned. If that happens, the person will be deposed.
Source: NTB
Sea view
For Mayorkas to actually be convicted in an impeachment case, a two-thirds majority in the Senate is needed. The Democrats have a majority there.
According to CNN it is not expected that the Senate will spend a lot of time on a possible impeachment case. Some Republican senators have also stated that they do not believe the charges against Mayorkas are serious enough to qualify for impeachment.
This they accuse him of
The number of immigrants who have entered the United States illegally has been at a record high since Joe Biden became president in 2021, writes Reuters. according to It’s about the BBC around 6.3 million people.
The Republicans believe that Alejandro Mayorkas has ensured that the US border has “crumbled up”, and they believe that he has done it on purpose.
They accuse him of “systematically and willfully” refusing to enforce federal immigration laws. In addition, they believe that he has lied to Congress, writes NTB.
– From his first day on the job, Mayorkas has deliberately refused to follow federal immigration laws, which has led to the worst border crisis in the history of the United States, says the leader of the House of Representatives, Republican Mike Johnsen, after the vote.
Mayorkas has previously said that he cannot be held responsible for the situation on the border. He blames a “broken” immigration system, and believes the elected politicians in Congress must take responsibility for their failure to fix it.
Also read: Fears chaos at the border: – The laws are broken
VOTE AGAINST OWN PARTY: Republican Ken Buck of Colorado. Photo: J. Scott Applewhite/AP/NTB
Biden reacts strongly
President Joe Biden reacts strongly to the vote in the House of Representatives. He believes the Republicans are playing “petty, political games” and that they have attacked what he refers to as an honorable public servant.
– Instead of staging political stunts like this, the Republicans who are actually concerned about the situation on the border should work for Congress to adopt more resources for the border and for border security. Unfortunately, the same Republicans who now want this baseless impeachment case are against bipartisan plans that Mayorkas and other members of my administration have worked hard for, he writes in a statement.
Voted against own party
Three Republicans – Ken Buck, Mike Gallagher and Tom McClintock – voted against their own party during the vote. Buck believes the charges against Mayorkas are not serious enough to fall under impeachment legislation.
– You can try to put lipstick on a pig, it’s still a pig. And this is a terrible impeachment case, it sets a terrible precedent The word precedent is used for a principled decision or a practice in public administration that can create a pattern for later decisions in similar cases, writes Store Norske Leksikon. , he says to CNN.
– When leaders give in to the frivolous, the serious ones will disappear. There is a big problem in this place, he says of the Congress.
Hot topic in the election campaign
The situation on the US border is one of the most central topics in the ongoing election campaign before the presidential election in November.
Former President Donald Trump, who by all accounts will be the Republican presidential candidate, has criticized Biden’s policy in the field, and promised that he will start deporting migrants from day one if he is re-elected.
The majority leader in the House of Representatives, Republican Mike Johnson, is among those who have worked to get an impeachment case against Mayorkas in place. He has also voted against a border agreement from the Democrats, which would at the same time guarantee military support to Ukraine and Israel.
Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer, who is the majority leader in the Senate, says according to CNN that he believes the Republicans have carried out the vote to satisfy Donald Trump.
– This is a new low for the Republicans in the House of Representatives, he says.
2024-02-14 00:33:20
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