Minnesota’s congressional delegation broke along party lines Tuesday in the U.S. House’s 214-213 vote to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
Minnesota Republicans in Congress vote to impeach Biden’s Homeland Security secretary
Republican Reps. Emmer, Fischbach, Stauber and Finstad voted to impeach, while Democrats McCollum, Omar, Phillips and Craig voted against it.
The Minnesota Star Tribune
February 14, 2024 at 3:11PM
The impeachment vote was an unprecedented move by a Republican majority determined to punish the Biden administration for its handling of security at the southern border. It came a week after House Republicans’ first attempt to impeach Mayorkas failed in an embarrassing setback.
Minnesota’s four Republican members — Reps. Tom Emmer, Michelle Fischbach, Pete Stauber and Brad Finstad — voted to impeach Mayorkas. Democratic U.S. Reps. Betty McCollum, Ilhan Omar, Dean Phillips and Angie Craig voted against the move.
“The @HouseGOP is once again leading where Democrats have failed in taking action to secure our borders and protect our communities,” Emmer posted Tuesday night on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Fischbach said in a statement that Mayorkas “refused to enforce federal immigration law, risking our national security.”
“The American people are feeling pain of his failures every day, and he has lost their trust and the trust of the members of the House of Representatives,” Fischbach said. “House Republicans are following through on their commitment to hold the government accountable with our vote to impeach, and we will continue working to secure our borders and protect our national security.”
Democrats in Congress labeled the impeachment a political stunt, arguing the charges leveled against the secretary were untrue and didn’t meet the Constitution’s standard of treason, bribery or “high crimes and misdemeanors.”
President Joe Biden called the impeachment of his Cabinet secretary a “blatant act of unconstitutional partisanship that has targeted an honorable public servant in order to play petty political games.’’
Phillips criticized House Republicans for impeaching Mayorkas while not supporting a bipartisan Senate border security bill. The Senate bill sought to reduce illegal border crossings by making the asylum process tougher and quicker, and to give presidential administrations an emergency authority to suspend asylum claims when illegal crossings reach a certain threshold.
“Strange days. Impeach the DHS Secretary but refuse to pass a bipartisan bill to address the circumstances for which he’s being impeached,” Phillips posted on X Tuesday.
The impeachment charges against Mayorkas head to the U.S. Senate next, where members have shown little interest in taking up the matter.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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