'GOP is humiliated!' Internet trolls House Republicans after failed bid to impeach Alejandro Mayorkas

WASHINGTON, DC: On Tuesday night, House Republicans attempted to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on charges of “willful and systemic refusal to comply” with federal immigration law and for lying to Congress about the border being “secure.”

However, the impeachment resolution failed with almost all Democrats and four Republicans voting against it.

Only 214 Republicans voted in favor of the impeachment, falling short of the required majority to oust the 64-year-old from his position as DHS chief and President Biden’s chief border enforcement officer.

What shifted the balance in Alejandro Mayorkas impeachment?

According to the impeachment resolution, Mayorkas failed to uphold the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 and lied to Congress about his enforcement of the Secure Fence Act of 2006 by claiming he had "operational control" of the border and that it was "secure."

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La) was the sole absentee from the vote, as he continues to undergo treatment for blood cancer, according to a report from the New York Post.

Representative Hal Rogers (R-Ky), who had been involved in a car accident in mid-January, returned just in time for the vote and was observed wearing a neck brace on the House floor.

If confirmed, Mayorkas would have been only the second Cabinet official ever to be impeached, and the first since Secretary of War William Belknap in 1876, who resigned while facing allegations of corruption.

Initially, Representatives Ken Buck (R-Colo), Tom McClintock (R-Calif), and Mike Gallagher (R-Wis) joined with the Democrats in opposing impeachment. However, the pro-Mayorkas forces gained momentum with a surprise appearance from Representative Al Green (D-Texas), who had previously missed earlier votes due to surgery and arrived shortly before the vote in a wheelchair.

The House Homeland Security Committee Chairman, Mark Green (R-Tenn), along with other members, attempted to persuade Mike Gallagher to reconsider his position on a resolution that was on course to fail.

The resolution, which had been brought to the floor by Green's panel, had resulted in a tied vote, with both parties garnering 215 votes each.

As the clock ticked down, Democratic lawmakers resorted to heckling their Republican counterparts with cries of "order."

However, the drama came to an end when House GOP Conference Vice Chair, Blake Moore, switched his vote from "yea" to "nay," drawing cheers from the Democratic side of the aisle.

It should be noted that the Utah Republican had made the switch to join the majority and offer a motion to reconsider, which has been postponed until a future date.

What unfolded on the house floor?

During a procedural vote earlier on Tuesday afternoon, all 216 GOP lawmakers present for the session, voted to allow the measure to move forward.

Prior to the vote, House Republican leaders had expressed confidence in the outcome and were optimistic about the proceedings.

In a statement to the press, House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican representative from Louisiana said, “I don’t believe there’s ever been a Cabinet secretary who has so blatantly, openly, willfully and without remorse did exactly the opposite what the federal law requires him to do.”

He further remarked that, while impeachment was “an extreme measure … extreme times call for extreme measures.”

In preparation for a possible Senate trial, Johnson named 11 impeachment managers on Monday.

The managers include Representative Michael Guest of Mississippi, Representative Mark Green of Tennessee, and Representatives Michael McCaul and August Pfluger of Texas, Clay Higgins of Louisiana, Ben Cline of Virginia, Andy Biggs of Arizona, Andrew Garbarino of New York, Harriet Hageman of Wyoming, Laurel Lee of Florida, and Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, who authored the resolution.

In his floor speech on Tuesday, Rep Mark Green stated, "For nearly a year, the House Committee on Homeland Security conducted a thorough, fair, and comprehensive investigation into the causes, costs, and consequences of the border crisis."

He went on to explain the investigation, which included trips to the southern border, interviews with current and former federal law enforcement officials, a field hearing, and testimony from state attorneys general and grieving mothers who lost their daughters to fentanyl and crime as a result of the border crisis.

Green addressed House legislators, “Democrats consistently claimed these hearings were a waste of time. Tell that to the families of the 150,000 Americans who died from fentanyl poisoning in 2021 and 2022 alone.”

During a Rules Committee hearing on Monday night, Green proposed a resolution that would have held Alejandro Mayorkas accountable for implementing a "catch-and-release" scheme and violating detention requirements, as well as misusing parole authority.

However, Massachusetts Democrat Jim McGovern, the ranking member of the Rules Committee, argued during the House floor debate that the impeachment articles lacked evidence, proof, or elements of a crime, and challenged Rep. Green's inability to identify a possible successor should Mayorkas be removed from office.

Furthermore, McGovern cited some Republican members' objections that there were no identifiable crimes committed by Mayorkas, as well as a letter from attorneys at the Department of Homeland Security who called the impeachment "a radical and dangerous step in violation of the Constitution."

Similarly, Mississippi Democrat Bennie Thompson, the ranking member of the House Homeland Security Committee, had also previously criticized the impeachment effort as a "sham impeachment" and stated that Mayorkas had not committed high crimes and misdemeanors.

The resolution also stated that Mayorkas refused to enforce the Trump administration's Migrant Protection Protocols, known as the ‘Remain in Mexico’ policy, which requires migrants to await asylum hearings south of the US border.

The resolution criticized Mayorkas's policies that allowed for humanitarian parole "en masse," rather than the "case-by-case basis" required by federal law, letting in up to 30,000 migrants allowed every month from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela to await their US asylum hearings.

This has led to a backlog of more than 3 million asylum cases, the impeachment resolution added.

Since President Joe Biden took office in January, more than 8.5 million migrants have been apprehended by US Customs and Border Protection, with at least 7 million of those encounters occurring on the southern border.

Another 1.8 million known "gotaways" evaded arrest when entering the United States.

During the floor debate, Texas Republican Michael Burgess drew attention to a policy memo released by Mayorkas on September 30, 2021, which he said was directly responsible for the massive influx of migrants and was also cited in the resolution.

Lastly, the failed impeachment followed news in the Senate earlier on Tuesday that a new $118 billion border security package, which included additional military aid for Ukraine and Israel, was effectively dead.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky) told reporters that the bill had "no real chance" of passing, but pushed his conference to address foreign military assistance in a separate supplemental bill.

Internet trolls Republicans for failing to oust Alejandro Mayorkas

People on X skewered House Republicans for their inability to get any resolution over the line on the House floor in any plausible manner despite boasting of a majority.

One X user remarked, "Weak speaker of the house"

Another user quipped, "Of course they did . That’s what Republicans do"

Another user said, "This is so onbrand for the @GOP. Bunch of ballless wonders."

One user wrote, "As usual, the @GOP is humiliated."

Another X user remarked, "The Republican majority never fails to be an embarrassment."

Finally, this user tweeted, "That’s because they are all useless. Stop funding the GOP."

This article contains remarks made on the Internet by individual people and organizations. MEAWW cannot confirm them independently and does not support claims or opinions being made online.