House sets second Mayorkas impeachment vote for Tuesday

Washington — The House will vote again on impeaching Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Tuesday, after it fell short by one vote earlier this week. 

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise is returning to Washington next week after working remotely in January while completing cancer treatment. The Louisiana Republican could give the House GOP enough votes to impeach Mayorkas. 

A special election in New York’s third congressional district to replace former GOP Rep. George Santos puts pressure on House Republicans to move quickly on another vote. The swing seat could affect the House’s Republican majority, which already has a razor-thin margin. The impeachment vote is scheduled the same day as the special election. 

Mayorkas narrowly survived the first impeachment vote after a small group of Republicans helped sink the GOP-led effort. As well as three GOP defections, all Democrats were in attendance, including one who unexpectedly showed up in his hospital scrubs after intestinal surgery. A fourth Republican switched his vote at the last minute to give GOP leaders the opportunity to bring up the vote again. 

Before the vote switch, the vote was tied at 215-215, defeating the impeachment resolution. Scalise’s vote would tip it in favor of impeachment, depending on any absences. 

Republicans want to impeach Mayorkas over his handling of the crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border. Democrats argue that the charges in the impeachment articles fail to meet the bar of a high crime or misdemeanor, a criticism shared by legal experts on both sides of the aisle.