Why was Alejandro Mayorkas impeached? Biden speaks out against House Republicans' vote to impeach Homeland Security Secretary

In a historic vote, House Republicans impeached Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Tuesday, February 13, 2024. The impeachment comes amid their investigation of Mayorka's handling of the border crisis over the significant increase in migrant crossings at the US-Mexico border, CNN reported.

The Republicans, who narrowly voted 214 to 213 to impeach Mayorkas, accused him of failing to do more to secure the border, which had seen an unprecedented influx of migrants last year.

The discourse to impeach Mayorkas began last year when former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, during his bid for a second term, mentioned that he was open to the idea of impeaching Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas over the deteriorating conditions on the U.S.-Mexican border.

The suggestion gained swift momentum last month after Republicans expressed openness to the idea amid the recent surge of migrants crossing the southern border, CNN reported.

According to the network, citing preliminary Homeland Security statistics, border officers encountered more than 225,000 migrants along the border in December 2023, the highest since 2000. The migrant crisis has become a divisive and politically contentious issue ahead of the November election and has been adopted as a campaign focus by Donald Trump in his bid to defeat Biden.

According to the BBC, over 6 million people have illegally entered the country since 2021. On Tuesday, Republicans imputed Alejandro Mayorkas’s failure to uphold his oath to better secure the border as a reason to impeach him. The incident made him the first cabinet member to face impeachment in over a century.

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All about Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas amid impeachment

Shortly after House Republicans voted to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, President Joe Biden issued a statement on Tuesday, calling the vote a "political stunt" and a "blatant act of unconstitutional partisanship.” Biden defended Mayorka's service to the country, saying:

“He has upheld the rule of law faithfully and has demonstrated a deep commitment to the values that make our nation great.”

Mayorkas, a Cuban immigrant who came to the US with his family as political refugees, has reportedly served the country in law enforcement and public service.

According to Britannica, Myorkas, a Romanian Jew, graduated with a law degree from Loyola Law School in Los Angeles in 1985 before becoming a trial lawyer and going on to work in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California.

Mayorkas was appointed U.S. attorney by President Bill Clinton in 1998. After returning to private practice under George Bush’s presidency, in 2009, President Barack Obama appointed him to lead the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, a division of the Department of Homeland Security.

In 2015, Mayorkas became the deputy secretary of DHS but went back to private practice during the Trump administration. In 2020, he was nominated by President-elect Joe Biden to head DHS, where he oversaw the creation of a task force responsible for reuniting families separated at the southern border under Donald Trump’s administration.

The impeachment issue now heads to the Democratic-led Senate, which will decide if Myorksas should be removed from office. According to multiple reports, including CNN, it is unlikely the Democratic-led Senate will decide to charge Mayorkas.