The first impeachment trial in the US in a century and a half: the Republican impeachment of the Secretary of Homeland Security for mismanagement

The political storm is brewing in Washington. The Republican bench managed to carry out, on the second attempt and by a single vote difference, a political trial against a member of the Government that had not occurred in a century and a half of American history.. The House of Representatives voted this Tuesday, by 214 votes in favor and 213 against, to submit to an impeachment process Secretary of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas, for his alleged mismanagement of the border with Mexico after a year of record in the number of illegal crossings through that border crossing.

The Republican majority accuses him of violating “public trust” and of systematically and “deliberately” opposing “complying with the law.”. However, the process has little sign of prospering once it reaches the Senate on February 26, a chamber controlled by Democrats and which gave the green light to $95 billion in aid for Ukraine and Israel last Tuesday..

The measure is extraordinary, not only because it had only occurred on one previous occasion with William Belknap in 1876, the Secretary of War under President Ulysses Grant, but because Mayorkas is not accused of corruption or any personal crime.. The charges, in this case, have to do with a certain type of policy on the border that has not given the expected results, a decision that threatens to further lower the bar of requirements to propose impeachment..

The reaction of the president of the United States, Joe Biden, did not wait long. “History will not look favorably on House Republicans for their blatant act of unconstitutional partisanship that has targeted an honorable public servant to engage in petty political games,” said the president, knowing that the crisis on the border will be one of the political weapons that Republicans wield in the face of the November presidential elections.

Expulsion of George Santos

Mike Johnson, the spokesman for the Republican majority in the Lower House, not only faced the issue of impeachment in his appearance the following day, but also the embarrassing loss of a seat in the House of Representatives after the expulsion of George Santos, the Republican congressman accused of fraud and campaign finance violations. Democrat Tom Suozzi, congressman from New York, won a special election that reduces the majority of Republicans in the Lower House and injects a necessary dose of morale to progressives heading into November.

“Last night’s result is not something, in my view, that Democrats should celebrate too much,” Johnson said. “Their candidate won with a Republican speech, talking about the border and immigration.” However, the internal tension among the conservatives is evident, with an exchange of accusations between those who voted in favor of expelling Santos and those who opposed that has not ceased in recent hours.