The House didn’t approve articles of impeachment for Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

Jose Luis Magana/AP

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Jose Luis Magana/AP

The House didn’t approve articles of impeachment for Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

Jose Luis Magana/AP

House Republicans didn’t move articles of impeachment for Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, scuttling an effort that was broadly seen as a possibility to ship on a key promise to GOP base voters.

The vote was caught in a tie for a number of minutes as leaders scrambled, however in the long run, 4 Republicans voted in opposition to the measure and the ultimate vote was 214 to 216.

Republicans instantly moved to deliver again the decision up for an additional vote. But it is unclear when or if that can finally occur. Republican Leader Steve Scalise was absent and is anticipated to return to the Capitol this month.

The two articles charged Mayorkas with “willful and systemic refusal to comply with the law” in imposing border coverage and “breach of public trust.”

The Republican base and conservative media figures known as for impeachment of a number of Biden administration officers – together with Mayorkas, Attorney General Merrick Garland, and President Biden himself – after the get together retook the House within the 2022 midterms.

Republicans have centered on investigations and oversight to ship on calls for from their base in a divided Congress the place a Democratic-controlled Senate can quash any partisan payments despatched from the House. But with a razor-thin majority, Republicans have been unable to unite their convention and keep a majority on the Mayorkas impeachment measure.

Speaking to reporters Tuesday morning, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., mentioned the chamber didn’t take the transfer “lightly.” He accused Mayorkas of failing to implement federal legislation “blatantly, openly, willfully and without remorse.”

“It’s an extreme measure, but extreme times call for extreme measures,” Johnson mentioned.

Rep. Tom McClintock, one of many Republicans who voted in opposition to impeaching, mentioned on the House Floor Tuesday that “Sec. Mayorkas is guilty of maladministration of our immigration laws on a cosmic scale. But we know that’s not grounds for impeachment because the American founders specifically rejected it.”

“They didn’t want political disputes to become impeachments because that would shatter their separation of powers that vests the enforcement of the laws with the president — no matter how bad a job he does,” mentioned McClintock, R-Calif.

The failed push got here as a bipartisan deal to reinforce border safety collapsed in the Senate.