Mayorkas avoids impeachment, dealing a blow to House conservatives

Eight Republicans crossed party lines on Monday to block a GOP-led effort to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. The vote dealt a blow to House conservatives, who had been threatening to impeach Mayorkas for at least a year.

By a final tally of 209 to 201, the House approved a motion to send the impeachment resolution back to the Homeland Security Committee for additional consideration, instead of proceeding with a floor vote.

If a floor vote had been held and Mayorkas had been impeached, he would have faced a trial in the Democratic-majority Senate, where it was difficult to see a path to the two-thirds majority needed to remove Mayorkas from his post.