California Dem misses close Mayorkas impeachment vote due to COVID-19

Rep. Judy Chu (D-Calif.) missed the House vote to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Tuesday evening after testing positive for the coronavirus.

“Unfortunately, I recently tested positive for COVID-19 and am isolating in accordance with CDC guidelines. Today, I am unable to stand on the floor to once again vote against the impeachment of Secretary Mayorkas. I couldn’t,” Chu said in a statement.

House Republicans narrowly voted 214-213 on Tuesday to impeach Mayorkas, after failing to do so in a stunning vote last week. If Mr. Chu had been there to vote against Mr. Mayorkas’ impeachment, the House vote would likely have been tied because three Republicans sided with Democrats and voted against the provision on Tuesday. It would be.

House Republicans were able to successfully impeach Mayorkas with the return of House Minority Leader Steve Scalise (R-Louisiana), who missed last week’s vote due to treatment for blood cancer.

A tie in the House vote means “the question is lost,” according to house rules. In a statement, Chu called the move to impeach Mayorkas an “abuse of power by House Republicans.”

“As I said last week when this issue first came before the House of Commons, impeaching ministers over policy disagreements is not the solution to our broken immigration system,” Chu said. Stated.

A handful of other lawmakers also did not participate in Tuesday’s vote, including Rep. Lois Frankel (D-Fla.) and Rep. Brian Mast (R-Fla.). each said their flight Late.

The article of impeachment filed against Mayorkas accuses him of a “deliberate and systematic refusal to abide by the law” for violating immigration laws by not detaining enough immigrants. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and President Biden have pushed back against these claims, calling Mayorkas’ impeachment unconstitutional.

“House Republicans will go down in history for trampling the Constitution for political gain instead of working to solve serious challenges at our border,” Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Mia Ehrenberg said in a statement. Deaf,” he said.

“Secretary Mayorkas is supporting a group of Republican and Democratic senators to develop a bipartisan solution to strengthen border security and ensure the resources needed for enforcement, while House Republicans are We have wasted months on an unconstitutional impeachment that violates the Constitution,” the statement continued.