The House of Representatives on Tuesday rejected a Republican-led effort to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, dealing a major blow to House GOP leadership and the conference in their efforts to deliver a rebuke to the Biden administration's immigration and border policies.

What You Need To Know

  • The House of Representatives on Tuesday rejected a Republican-led effort to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas

  • The failed vote is a major blow to House Republicans in their efforts to rebuke the Biden administration over its handling of the U.S.-Mexico border

  • Minutes after the vote, House Republicans suffered another devastating setback when a $17 billion Israel aid bill unveiled over the weekend by House Speaker Mike Johnson failed in a bipartisan vote

  • A spokesperson for Johnson wrote on social media that they will bring the impeachment measure back up again when they have the votes

The final vote was 214-216. Four Republicans -- Colorado Rep. Ken Buck, California Rep. Tom McClintock, Utah Rep. Blake Moore and Wisconsin Rep. Mike Gallagher -- joined all Democrats to sink the measure. (Moore, the vice chair of the House GOP conference, changed his vote from a yes to a no in a procedural move so the impeachment measure could be brought up again.)

The vote was tied at 215-215 (which would have also killed the measure) for several minutes, during which time several Republican lawmakers surrounded Gallagher in an attempt to get him to change his vote. Democrats shouted for the vote to be gaveled out and cheered as it failed.

"Clearly there is bipartisan agreement that this baseless, unconstitutional impeachment stunt should fail," Ian Sams, White House spokesperson for oversight and investigations, said in a statement after the vote. "House Republicans ought to realize that extreme political stunts like this are a waste of time, and instead join the President, Secretary Mayorkas, and Republicans and Democrats who want to work together to deliver real solutions that actually strengthen border security.”

"This baseless impeachment should never have moved forward; it faces bipartisan opposition and legal experts resoundingly say it is unconstitutional," Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Mia Ehrenberg said in a statement. "If House Republicans are serious about border security, they should abandon these political games, and instead support the bipartisan national security agreement in the Senate to get DHS the enforcement resources we need. Secretary Mayorkas remains focused on working across the aisle to promote real solutions at the border and keep our country safe."

Minutes after the vote, House Republicans suffered another devastating setback when a $17 billion Israel aid bill unveiled over the weekend by House Speaker Mike Johnson failed in a bipartisan 250-180 vote. Johnson quickly departed the Capitol on Tuesday night without speaking to reporters. A spokesperson for Johnson wrote on social media that they will bring the measure back up again when they have the votes.

"House Republicans fully intend to bring Articles of Impeachment against Secretary Mayorkas back to the floor when we have the votes for passage," Johnson spokesman Raj Shah wrote on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.

Rep. Mark Green, R-Tenn., the chairman of the Homeland Security Committee which led the impeachment efforts, said he was "frustrated" by the bill's failure, but said they'll "see it back again."

The vote was the culmination of a monthslong push by House Republicans to punish Mayorkas -- and President Joe Biden by extension -- for what they describe as the Democratic administration's failure to secure the U.S.-Mexico border. But Democrats have long railed against the impeachment of Mayorkas, calling it a sham and an effort to appease the frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination, Donald Trump.

"Secretary Mayorkas is a good man, a patriotic man and a hard-working man doing the best he can under very difficult circumstances," House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said Tuesday afternoon as lawmakers debated the impeachment measure. "That's not an impeachable offense. Extreme MAGA Republicans have produced no evidence that Secretary Mayorkas has engaged in a high crime or misdemeanor, no evidence that Secretary Mayorkas has engaged in impeachable offense and no evidence that Secretary Mayorkas has broken the law or violated the Constitution. Not a shred of evidence. Not a scintilla of evidence."

Jeffries went on to accuse House Republicans of avoiding "doing the hard work necessary to find common ground to actually address the challenges at the border," and said the impeachment charges being brought against Mayorkas were "not anchored in reality."

"You brought articles of impeachment for one simple reason: because you really want to impeach Joe Biden," he charged. "That’s what you were directed to do by the puppet master, the former president of the United States, Donald Trump. You really want to impeach Joe Biden, but you realize that that is politically unpopular.”

The Republicans who opposed the measure said that Mayorkas' conduct had not risen to the level of impeachment, which is reserved typically for "high crimes and misdemeanors."

Colorado Rep. Ken Buck wrote in an op-ed that Mayorkas' conduct is not grounds for impeachment.

"To be clear, Secretary Mayorkas has completely failed at his job. He is incompetent. He is an embarrassment," Buck charged. "And he will most likely be remembered as the worst secretary of Homeland Security in the history of the United States. However, the Constitution is clear that impeachment is reserved for 'Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.' Maladministration or incompetence does not rise to what our founders considered an impeachable offense."

"Partisan impeachments that do not meet the constitutional standard will boomerang back and hurt Republicans in the future," Buck continued. "I can envision a future Republican administration where a Democrat-led House uses this precedent to act against a Republican Cabinet member who isn’t discharging their duties in a way that Democrats desire."

McClintock earlier Tuesday came out against the impeachment effort, saying the articles "fail to identify an impeachable crime that Mayorkas has committed. In effect, they stretch and distort the Constitution in order to hold the administration accountable."

"The only way to stop the border invasion is to replace the Biden administration at the ballot box," he wrote on social media. "Swapping one leftist for another is a fantasy, solves nothing, excuses Biden’s culpability, and unconstitutionally expands impeachment that someday will bite Republicans."

Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a driving force behind the efforts to impeach Mayorkas, accused McClintock of "failing his oath of office."

"Clearly he's not paying attention to the American people," she charged earlier Tuesday, adding: "He needs to grow some courage and read the room. The room is our country, and the American people are fed up."Even if the measure had advanced out of the House, it would have required two-thirds of the Democratic-led Senate would need to convict him in order to remove him from office, a highly unlikely feat.

Mayorkas would have been only the second Cabinet member to be impeached in U.S. history. The only Cabinet official ever to be impeached was Secretary of War William Belknap in 1876 over corruption allegations. The Senate acquitted him.

Spectrum News' Ryan Chatelain contributed to this report.