House rejects GOP-led effort to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Mayorkas. What happened and what’s next?

After weeks of threatening to put the impeachment of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas up for a vote over his handling of border security, House Republicans made good on that promise Tuesday — and promptly failed to muster enough votes to pull it off.

The impeachment resolution failed 214-216, with four Republicans joining all 212 Democrats in rejecting the measure. They were:

• Rep. Tom McClintock of California

• Rep. Ken Buck of Colorado

• Rep. Mike Gallagher of Wisconsin

• Rep. Blake Moore of Utah

Here’s a quick guide to what led up the impeachment vote — and what comes next.

Who is Alejandro Mayorkas?

Mayorkas, 64, was born in Havana and came to the United States as a 1-year-old when his family fled Cuba. He has served as secretary of homeland security since February 2021. He was nominated for the position by then-President-elect Biden in November 2020 and confirmed by the Senate in a 56-43 vote. Previously, Mayorkas served as director of U.S. citizenship and immigration services and deputy homeland security secretary under President Barack Obama.

Mayorkas would have been the first Cabinet official to be impeached in nearly 150 years. The last time that happened was in 1876, when the House impeached Defense Secretary William Belknap over kickbacks in government contracts.

Who wanted to impeach him?

House Republicans were led by far-right Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, who in November introduced the resolution that led to Tuesday’s impeachment vote, and Rep. Mark Green of Tennessee, chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, who oversaw the panel’s vote recommending articles of impeachment against Mayorkas late last month.

They alleged that Mayorkas has committed “high crimes and misdemeanors” for failing to enforce U.S. immigration policies along the southern border, allowing for a record surge of illegal crossings in recent months.

“The facts are indisputable — for three years, Secretary Mayorkas has willfully and systemically refused to comply with the laws enacted by Congress, and he has breached the public trust,” Green said in a statement. “His actions created this unprecedented crisis, turning every state into a border state.”

“Make no mistake, Secretary Mayorkas’ lawlessness is exactly what the Framers of our Constitution designed impeachment to remedy,” Green added.

What has Mayorkas said about impeachment?

Last week Mayorkas sent a seven-page letter to the House Homeland Security committee calling the effort to impeach him “baseless.”

“I will defer a discussion of Constitutionality of your current effort to the many respected scholars and experts across the political spectrum who already have opined it is contrary to law,” Mayorkas wrote. “What I will not defer to others is a response to the politically motivated accusations and personal attacks you have made against me.”

Mayorkas added that the “false accusations” made by the committee do not rattle him and do not divert him “from the law enforcement and broader public service mission to which I have devoted most of my career and to which I remain devoted.”

What about the Senate border bill?

The effort to impeach Mayorkas over his handling of the border comes as House Republicans — along with a growing number of GOP senators — seem committed to opposing a bipartisan immigration bill negotiated for months in the Senate.

"Any consideration of this Senate bill in its current form is a waste of time," House Republican leaders said Monday in a statement. "It is DEAD on arrival in the House. We encourage the U.S. Senate to reject it."

The bill, which includes roughly $20 billion for border provisions, including border wall construction, asylum judges and increased detention capacity, would give the Department of Homeland Security the authority to restrict border crossings and effectively bar migrants who do enter the country from seeking asylum if the number of crossings reaches a certain threshold. The proposal has notably received the backing of the National Border Patrol Council, the union representing Border Patrol agents, which typically supports hardline immigration policies and previously endorsed Donald Trump for president. Trump himself, however, has been outspoken in his opposition to the bill and has urged Republicans in Congress to kill it.

So now what happens?

House Republicans say they will continue to seek to impeach Mayorkas, but further votes have yet to be scheduled. House Speaker Mike Johnson, already working with a razor-thin margin, will need to regroup to secure enough votes to pass an impeachment resolution.

The chamber is currently made up of 219 Republicans and 213 Democrats.