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A version of this story appeared in the daily Threat Status newsletter from The Washington Times. Click here to receive Threat Status delivered directly to your inbox each weekday.
House Speaker Mike Johnson on Wednesday called border security the “No. 1 priority” for Republicans and said part of that is the looming vote to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
He promised an impeachment vote “expeditiously” and predicted success.
“Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas is going to be impeached,” Mr. Johnson said at a Republican border roundtable.
An early-morning vote in the Homeland Security Committee advanced two articles of impeachment against Mr. Mayorkas. Democrats on the committee signaled they had little hope of derailing the impeachment and said Mr. Mayorkas would be vindicated in a Senate trial.
House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, Minnesota Republican, said the plan is to hold the vote next week.
SEE ALSO: House committee gives first approval to Mayorkas impeachment
Impeachment requires a majority vote in the House before it is sent to the Senate, usually for a trial and vote. It takes a two-thirds majority to convict and remove an official.
Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer, New York Democrat, wouldn’t commit to action on Wednesday.
“Let’s wait and see what the House does,” he told reporters.
The impeachment proceedings complicate the monthslong negotiations on legislation to stiffen border security. Mr. Mayorkas is part of those talks. Leading the negotiations are Sen. James Lankford, Oklahoma Republican, Sen. Christopher Murphy, Connecticut Democrat, and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, an Arizona independent who generally sides with Democrats.
Mr. Schumer said he intends to act on the legislation.
“Our border is broken,” he said.
Republicans sounded less committed. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell praised the progress but suggested moving ahead with a spending bill for the U.S. to assist wars in Ukraine and Israel without tackling the border if a deal isn’t reached soon.
“It’s time for us to move something, hopefully including the border agreement, but we need to get help to Israel and Ukraine quickly,” the Kentucky Republican said.
Mr. Johnson said he was not convinced the deal would be good enough. The plan shaping up would curtail unauthorized border crossings if daily illegal traffic reaches certain levels.
“From what we’ve heard, this so-called deal does not include these transformational policy changes that are needed to actually stop the border catastrophe,” he said.
He said the goal should be zero illegal border crossings, not the 5,000 daily threshold that negotiators broached.
Mr. Johnson said President Biden doesn’t need new legislation and has powers to control the border, just as President Trump did after a 2019 migrant surge.
“He has those tools right now. And he has since Day One,” Mr. Johnson said.
White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre expressed optimism for a deal but said House Republicans seem to be walking away.
“They’re truly flip-flopping on this issue,” she said.
She tamped down talk of leaving out border security and attempting to pass a bill with wartime aid for Ukraine and Israel.
“We need to move forward with it as it is,” she said.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
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