Mayorka’s impeachment in doubt as outgoing Republican Ken Buck says he will vote AGAINST: GOP faces disaster if one more member rejects investigation into border chaos

Colorado Republican Rep. Ken Buck has spoken out strongly against the effort to repeal Homeland Security Sec. to turn off. Alejandro Mayorkas – a defection that could potentially undo the effort.

‘It’s mismanagement. He’s terrible, the border is a disaster, but that’s not untouchable,” Buck told reporters Thursday, later adding that he “didn’t change his mind.”

“The people I talk to on the outside, constitutional experts and former members, agree that this is not a criminal offense,” Buck said.

The Republican Party leadership in the House of Representatives has insisted that they will put the impeachment to a vote next week. And after a 15-hour Homeland Security push, Buck’s opposition could be the death blow when combined with the two current Republican absentees in the House of Representatives.

‘It’s mismanagement. He’s terrible, the border is a disaster, but that can’t be impeached,” Buck told reporters at Mayorkas.

As Speaker Mike Johnson put it earlier this week, “We currently have only a small, as you know, razor-thin, effectively a one-vote majority in the House of Representatives.”

Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., is out of office due to cancer treatment and Rep. Hal Rogers, R-Ky., is recovering from a car accident.

Other Republicans might oppose the measure. Rep. Tom McClintock, R-California, has said he has not yet decided how he will vote.

The articles of impeachment were passed this week by the Homeland Security Committee on party lines.

Republicans have filed two articles of impeachment against Biden’s border chief Mayorkas — one accusing him of deliberately undermining immigration laws through catch-and-release and another accusing him of obstructing and lying to Congress.

Republicans cite Mayorkas’ “deliberate and systematic refusal to obey the law” as hundreds of migrants continue to pour into the US every day.

They allege that Mayorkas is guilty of “high crimes and misdemeanors” amounting to a “refusal to comply with immigration law” and a “breach of the public trust.”

The impeachment resolution stated: “Alejandro N. Mayorkas willfully and systematically refused to enforce immigration laws, failed to control the border at the expense of national security, endangered public safety, and violated the rule of law and the separation of powers in the constitution. , to the obvious detriment of the people of the United States.

Passage only requires a majority in the House of Representatives. The Senate would hold a trial, and a conviction would require a two-thirds majority, an extremely unlikely outcome in the Democratic-led Senate.

In December, more than 250,000 migrants were apprehended at the southern border

According to official figures from the Department of Homeland Security, more than 250,000 migrants were apprehended at the southern border in December – a record.

Even moderates, who have been reluctant to oust a Biden Cabinet member in recent months, now appear to be on board.

They say they are not concerned about thwarting bipartisan immigration negotiations in the Senate because they have no confidence that the Senate, working with Mayorkas, will reach a meaningful deal.

Rep. Mike Garcia, R-Calif., said he understands the deal as having “very little to do with border security and more to do with immigration processes.”

“If we don’t impeach Mayorkas,” he told reporters, “then I don’t see the president coming to the table and seeing that when an olive branch comes, actually doing something meaningful.”

“I think they can both happen at the same time,” Rep. Dan Newhouse, R-Wash., said of Senate negotiations and impeachment.