Jessica McBride & Jim Piwowarczyk
Wisconsin Republican Congressman Mike Gallagher was one of three Republicans who joined with Democrats on Tuesday to sink the impeachment of U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
Social media has lit up with criticism of the three Republicans who voted against impeaching Mayorkas as illegal immigrants continue to enter the country en masse. House Republican leaders wanted to impeach Mayorkas because he was refusing to uphold the rule of law at the border. According to the Hill, as a result of the three no votes, the House impeachment effort failed in an “embarrassing fashion.”
The vote ended up being 214-216. CNN called the vote a “stunning defeat” for Republican leadership. The other Republicans in the Wisconsin delegation voted to impeach Mayorkas.
House Speaker Mike Johnson’s spokesman wrote on X “House Republicans fully intend to bring Articles of Impeachment against Secretary Mayorkas back to the floor when we have the votes for passage.” According to the Hill, Johnson hopes to get the vote of Republican Steve Scalise who was absent due to cancer treatments. That will put Gallagher, of Green Bay, back on the hot seat.
A fourth Republican, Utah Rep. Blake Moore, changed his vote to no, but, according to Rep. Marjorie Taylor-Green, “Blake Moore changed his vote no when asked by leadership for procedural reasons to make a motion to reconsider so that we can vote on impeachment again next week. We look forward to Leader Steve Scalise returning to vote yes and officially impeaching Secretary Mayorkas.”
Thus, some critics are focusing their outrage only on Gallagher and Republican Reps. Tom McClintock and Ken Buck, not Moore. According to the Hill, the no votes of McClintock and Buck were expected, but Gallagher’s came as a surprise.
Gallagher tried to explain his decision in a statement. “Secretary Mayorkas has faithfully implemented President Biden’s open border policies and helped create the dangerous crisis at the southern border,” Gallagher said. “But the proponents of impeachment failed to make the argument as to how his stunning incompetence meets the impeachment threshold Republicans outlined while defending former President Trump.”
He wrote that voting to impeach Mayorkas would “only further pry open the Pandora’s box of perpetual impeachment.”
Republican Wisconsin Congressman Derrick Van Orden voted to impeach Mayorkas.
“We are experiencing the worst border crisis in history under President Biden and Secretary Mayorkas,” Van Orden said in a statement.
“The disregard for the safety and security of the United States, as well as the refusal to uphold the rule of law, is appalling. With over 7 million illegal crossings at the southern border and 1.7 million gotaways evading U.S. Border Patrol since the Biden administration took office, Secretary Mayorkas has willfully and systemically refused to comply with federal immigration laws and has breached the public trust by violating his oath of duty to control and guard the border. The most egregious example of this is Secretary Mayorkas instructing ICE and DHS personnel not to rely solely on the fact that the alien is residing in the country illegally or that they have criminal and terrorism-related convictions as grounds to take them into custody.”
Continued Van Orden: “The evidence presented is so compelling that Congress must exercise its constitutional duty to protect the American people. Border security is national security, and we cannot have someone who refuses to secure the southern border in charge of protecting our homeland. It was clearly past time to impeach Secretary Mayorkas.”
Republican Congressman Tom Tiffany, who voted to impeach Mayorakas, said in a statement, “For the last three years, Secretary Mayorkas has willfully refused to enforce federal immigration laws, abused his parole authority, repeatedly lied to Congress, and unleashed millions of illegal aliens and deadly drugs into our communities.”
Said Tiffany: “His implementation of a mass catch-and-release scheme where illegals have been dumped into American neighborhoods with no court dates or monitoring is a danger to every American. I do not take an impeachment vote lightly, but it’s time to put the safety of our citizens first and hold Secretary Mayorkas accountable for his failures.”
This article originally appeared at Wisconsin Right Now and was reprinted with permission.
