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

Rep. Judy Chu (D-Calif.) was absent from the House vote to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Tuesday evening due to testing positive for COVID-19.

“Unfortunately, I recently tested positive for COVID-19 and am isolating in accordance with CDC guidelines. Today, I was unable to be on the Floor to vote once again against impeaching Secretary Mayorkas,” Chu said in a statement.

In a narrow 214-213 vote Tuesday, House Republicans succeeded in impeaching Mayorkas after failing to do so last week in a stunning vote. If Chu had been there to cast her vote against impeaching Mayorkas, the House vote would have likely led to a tie, as three Republicans had sided with Democrats to vote against the articles Tuesday.

House Republicans were able to succeed in their vote to impeach Mayorkas with the return of House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.), who missed last week’s vote since he was being treated for blood cancer.

A tie in a House vote means that the “question shall be lost,” according to the House rules. Chu slammed the move to impeach Mayorkas in her statement, saying the action was “an abuse of power by House Republicans.”

“As I stated last week when this was first put to the House: impeaching a Cabinet member over policy disagreements isn’t a solution to our broken immigration system,” Chu said.

A handful of other members also did not make the vote Tuesday, including Florida Reps. Lois Frankel (D) and Brian Mast (R), who both said their flights were delayed.

The articles of impeachment filed against Mayorkas accused him of “willful and systemic refusal to comply with the law,” alleging that he violated immigration laws by not detaining enough migrants. The Department of Homeland Security and President Biden have pushed back on these claims and argued that impeaching Mayorkas was unconstitutional.

“House Republicans will be remembered by history for trampling on the Constitution for political gain rather than working to solve the serious challenges at our border,” department spokesperson Mia Ehrenberg said in a statement.

“While Secretary Mayorkas was helping a group of Republican and Democratic Senators develop bipartisan solutions to strengthen border security and get needed resources for enforcement, House Republicans have wasted months with this baseless, unconstitutional impeachment,” the statement continued.