In a dramatic setback, Republicans failed to oust Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro N. Mayorkas on Tuesday. He was forced to put aside a high-profile priority for now after some Republican lawmakers refused to go along with the parties’ plan.

The stunning roll call fell just a few votes short of removing Mayorkas, halting Republicans’ drive to punish the Biden administration over its handling of the U.S.-Mexico border. With Democrats united against the charges, Republicans needed almost every vote of their slim majority to pass the articles of impeachment.

The House of Representatives will likely revisit plans to impeach Mayorkas, but next steps are highly uncertain.

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.)

who could only lose a few Republicans from his narrow majority,

said he personally spoke to Republicans and acknowledged the heavy votes as he sought their support.

It’s an extreme measure, Johnson said. But extreme times call for extreme measures.

Not since 1876 has a Cabinet secretary faced an impeachment charge. 148 years ago, Secretary of War William Belknap resigned just before the election.

The charges against Mayorkas come as border security is fast becoming a top political issue in the 2024 elections, with a particularly strong line of attack aimed at President Biden by Republicans, led by the party’s frontrunner for the nomination, former President Trump.

Record numbers of people have arrived at the southern border, many fleeing countries around the world, in what Mayorkas calls an era of global migration. Many seek asylum and are released on parole to the US. They arrive in cities ill-equipped to provide housing and other assistance as they wait for legal proceedings that can take years to determine whether they can stay.

Democrats in the House of Representatives united against the two articles of impeachment against Mayorkas, calling the proceedings a sham designed to please Trump, accusations that do not meet the constitutional requirements of treason, bribery or high crimes and misdemeanors.

A lot of junk, said Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.). He called Mayorkas a good man, a decent man, who is just trying to do his job.

Even if Republicans ultimately succeed in impeaching Mayorkas, he is not expected to be convicted in a trial in the Senate, where Republican senators have been cold-blooded. The Senate could simply refer the matter to a committee for its own investigation, delaying immediate action.

Mayorka’s impeachment quickly found its way onto the House agenda after Republican efforts to impeach Biden over the business dealings of his son, Hunter Biden, stalled and the investigation into the Biden family continued.

The Homeland Security Committee led by Chairman Mark Green (R-Tenn.) had been investigating the secretary for most of the past year, including investigating the flow of deadly fentanyl into the US. But a resolution from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), a Trump ally, pushed it to the forefront. The panel quickly held a pair of hearings in January before announcing the two articles of impeachment against Mayorkas.

Unlike other moments in impeachment history, the arguments took place in a nearly empty room, without the passion or solemnity of previous proceedings.

Arizona Republican Rep. Eli Crane said Mayorkas had committed a dereliction of duty.

Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) said the vote to impeach Mayorka was a stunt designed by Republicans to “sow chaos and confusion” and appease Trump, rather than to govern.

No reasonable American can conclude that you are making life better for him by making this bogus accusation, Jeffries said.

The secretary, a former federal prosecutor, has never taken a test on his own behalf, but has submitted a rare letter to the panel defending his work.

Tuesday’s vote came at a politically strange time for Mayorkas, who is commuting to the Senate to negotiate a bipartisan border security package, earning high marks from a group of concerned senators.

But that legislation, which emerged Sunday as one of the most ambitious immigration overhauls in years, is headed for an immediate defeat in a test vote on Wednesday. Trump sharply criticized the bipartisan effort, other Republicans are investigating and Speaker Johnson says it’s dead on arrival.

At the impeachment vote

California Republican Rep. Tom McClintock of Elk Grove announced his opposition, saying the charges fail to identify an impeachable crime Mayorkas committed.

McClintock, a conservative, said in a lengthy memo that the committee’s articles of impeachment explain the problems at the border under Biden’s watch. But, he said, they twist and distort the Constitution.

Another Republican, retiring Rep. Ken Buck of Colorado, also said he opposed Mayorkas’ ouster.

Impeachment, once rare in the US, is used both as a constitutional check on executive power and increasingly as a political weapon.

House Republicans have prioritized impeachments, censures and other rebukes of officials and lawmakers during this session of Congress. In doing so, they have set a new standard that affects scientists and others in the ways in which they can impose penalties for perceived violations.

Experts have argued that Mayorkas has simply become entangled in a policy dispute with Republicans who disapprove of the Biden administration’s handling of the border situation.

Constitutional law expert Jonathan Turley said impeachment should not be used because he is a bad cabinet member. Attorney Alan Dershowitz wrote, “Whatever else Mayorkas may or may not have done, he did not commit bribery, treason, or high crimes and misdemeanors.”

Scholars point out that the framers of the Constitution initially considered maladministration a criminal offense, but dropped it due to concerns that it would give the legislature too much influence over the executive and upset the balance of power.

Three former Department of Homeland Security secretaries, Michael Chertoff, Janet Napolitano and Jeh Johnson, said in a letter Tuesday that charging the Cabinet official over policy disputes would endanger our national security.

Trump was impeached twice as president, first in 2019 for abuse of power following his phone call in which the Ukrainian president sought a favor to dig up dirt on then-rival Biden, and later on charges of inciting the insurrection of January 6, 2021 . the capital. He was acquitted of both impeachments in the Senate.