Pablo Scarpellini Los Angeles

The Angels

Updated Wednesday, February 14, 2024-20:01

The political storm is brewing in Washington. The Republican bench managed to carry out, on the second attempt and by a single vote difference,

a political trial

against a member of the Government that

had not occurred in a century and a half

of American history. The House of Representatives voted this Tuesday, by 214 votes in favor and 213 against,

to submit to an

impeachment process

to the Secretary of Homeland Security,

Alejandro Mayorkas

, for his alleged

mismanagement of the border with Mexico

after a record year in the number of illegal crossings through that border crossing.

The Republican majority accuses him of violating "public trust" and of systematically and "deliberately" opposing "complying with the law." However, the process has

little sign of prospering

once it

reaches the Senate on February 26

, a chamber

controlled by Democrats

and which gave the green light to $95 billion in aid for Ukraine and Israel last Tuesday.

The measure is extraordinary, not only because it had only occurred on one previous occasion with William Belknap in 1876, the Secretary of War under President Ulysses Grant, but because Mayorkas is

not accused of corruption or any personal crime

. The charges, in this case, have to do with a certain type of policy on the border that

has not given the expected results

, a decision that threatens to further lower the bar of requirements to propose impeachment.

The reaction of the US president, Joe Biden, was immediate. "History will not look favorably on House Republicans for their

blatant act of unconstitutional partisanship

that has targeted an honorable public servant to engage in petty political games," said the president, knowing that the crisis on the border will be one of the political weapons that Republicans wield in the face of the presidential elections in November.

Expulsion of George Santos

Mike Johnson

, the speaker of the Republican majority in the Lower House, not only faced the issue of

impeachment

in his appearance the following day, but also the embarrassing

loss of a seat in the House of Representatives

after the

expulsion of George Santos

, the Republican congressman. accused of fraud and campaign finance violations. Democrat Tom Suozzi, congressman from New York, won a special election that reduces the majority of Republicans in the Lower House and injects a necessary dose of morale to progressives heading into November.

"Last night's result is not something, in my view, that Democrats should celebrate too much," Johnson said. "His candidate won with a Republican speech, talking about the border and immigration." However, the internal tension among the conservatives is evident, with an exchange of accusations between those who voted in favor of expelling Santos and those who opposed that has not ceased in recent hours.