In this year’s election, immigration turns out to be the major concern in America.
Let’s read the news and find out more.
U.S. House Republicans Impeach Biden’s Top Border Official
The U.S. House of Representatives, which Republicans majorly control, voted to impeach Joe Biden’s top border official, Alejandro Mayorkas, on Tuesday.
They accused Alejandro Mayorkas, Homeland Security Secretary, on two articles of impeachment with a vote of 214-213.
Firstly, not enforcing proper U.S. immigration laws, which the Republicans feel led to the overflowing immigrants across the southern U.S. – Mexico border. Secondly, making false statements to Congress.
The vote represented the first time in nearly 150 years and only the second time in American history that the House had impeached a member of a president’s Cabinet.
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President Ulysses S. Grant’s secretary of war, William Belknap, was the last Cabinet secretary to be impeached in 1876 due to accusations of corruption. The Senate acquitted him.
Speaker Mike Johnson suffered an embarrassing legislative setback last week when a similar attempt to impeach Mayorkas failed, but that was reversed by the vote on Tuesday.
The decisive vote was cast on Tuesday by Republican Representative Steve Scalise, who could not participate in the previous week’s vote due to his cancer treatment. In the House, Republicans have a slim 219–212 majority.
Johnson stated after the vote, “Secretary Mayorkas has willfully and consistently refused to comply with federal immigration laws, fueling the worst border catastrophe in American history,”
Three Republicans, Representatives Ken Buck, Tom McClintock, and Mike Gallagher, defied their leadership by voting against the impeachment on Tuesday, while no Democrats supported the move.
Like last week, this time, too, they voted against the impeachment.
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Since Biden assumed office in 2021, a record-breaking number of migrants have entered the country illegally from Mexico, a topic that former President Donald Trump has emphasized heavily in his campaign against Biden.
On Tuesday, U.S. Customs and Border Protection said that, due to seasonal factors and heightened enforcement by the U.S. and its allies, the number of migrants captured for unlawfully crossing the southern border fell by 50% in January from high levels in December.
According to Mayorkas, the fault for the current border crisis is not with him; rather, it is with the faulty immigration laws in the United States, which Congress has not been able to resolve.
The House investigation into Mayorkas’s conduct, according to constitutional experts and even some Republicans, fell short of presenting proof of the “high crimes and misdemeanors” that the U.S. Constitution lists as grounds for impeachment. Rather, they presented the argument as a simple “policy disputes.”
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A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, Mia Ehrenberg, released a statement saying, “Without a shred of evidence or legitimate constitutional grounds… House Republicans have falsely smeared a dedicated public servant who has spent more than 20 years enforcing our laws and serving our country.”
Biden said in a press release, “History will not look kindly on House Republicans for their blatant act of unconstitutional partisanship that has targeted an honorable public servant in order to play petty political games.”
The House impeachment vote on Tuesday occurred one week after a bipartisan agreement to address border security was defeated by hardline Republicans in the Senate, influenced by President Trump.
According to those who supported the agreement, including Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, it would have been the most comprehensive change to border security policy in decades.
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