Texans for Strong Borders

  • Texans for Strong Borders
    Texans for Strong Borders

On Tuesday, February 6th, Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives failed to impeach Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas by a vote of 214-216. Mayorkas has been roundly criticized by Republicans for flagrant abuses of federal immigration law and lax enforcement that has led to over 8 million nationwide border encounters and nearly 2 million known gotaways since January 2021.

After Democrats reportedly had an unexpectedly low absence rate for the vote, just three Republican no votes sunk the measure. Reps. Ken Buck (CO), Tom McClintock (CA), and Mike Gallagher (WI) created a 215-215 stall before Rep. Blake Moore (UT) ultimately voted no so that a Motion to Reconsider could be used to revive the impeachment after further negotiation.

Even if an impeachment vote eventually succeeds, the U.S. Senate is unlikely to convict due to a Democrat majority.

After monumental blowback from conservatives and border security advocacy groups, including Texans for Strong Borders, the U.S. Senate's Lankford-Schumer Border Security package failed 4950 on Tuesday, with just four Republicans voting for the package: James Lankford (OK), the deal's main Republican negotiator, and known moderates Mitt Romney (UT), Susan Collins (ME), and Lisa Murkowski (AK).

As we've stated before, the socalled 'Border Act' would have allowed up to 5,000 nationwide border encounters per day (nearly 2 million per year) before granting expedited removal powers to DHS. It also codified controversial asylum rules and increased legal immigration and work authorization for both illegal aliens and the children of H-1B visa holders.

Democratic apparatchiks and the mainstream media have laid blame at the feet of Republicans, despite the fact that former DHS officials and border security experts have stated that this new law may actually increase incentives for millions of illegal aliens to flow into the United States.

Both Senators from Texas wisely voted no on the measure, with Ted Cruz opposing before the text of the bill was available and John Cornyn eventually reaching a no vote after pushback from constituents and a recommendation from Mitch McConnell to Republican members the night before.