Republicans in the United States House of Representatives voted on Tuesday night to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
The lawmakers claimed Mayorkas has been responsible for a record influx of illegal migrants crossing the US-Mexico border in the past year.
According to Voice of America, the vote was 214-213 to impeach, but three Republicans sided with the Democrats against it.
It reported that hard-line conservative Republicans have targeted Mayorkas for months but failed by a single vote last week to impeach him when three House Republicans voted against the effort.
It added that the House party leaders failed to realise that one Democratic lawmaker opposed to the impeachment would show up to vote even though he had been hospitalised awaiting surgery.
The vote Tuesday was close again but came down in favor of impeaching the 64-year-old Cabinet member with the return of Republican Majority Leader Steve Scalise, who missed last week’s vote while being treated for cancer.
Mayorkas became only the second Cabinet member in US history to be impeached, after Secretary of War William Belknap in 1876.
The impeachment of Mayorkas, the political equivalent of an indictment, could prove to be a symbolic victory for his Republican critics, who are looking, as the November elections approach, to attack Democratic President Joe Biden and Democratic lawmakers for the chaos at the US Southern border.
A record 10,000 migrants a day were apprehended at that border in December, VOA said.
The Democratic-controlled Senate, with a 51-49 majority, is certain to acquit Mayorkas. A two-thirds vote is needed for a conviction, meaning at least 18 Democrats would have to vote for a conviction if all Republicans did as well.
Now that the House has impeached Mayorkas, the Senate will be compelled to at least open a trial. But it could vote to dismiss the articles, dissolve the trial, or refer the articles of impeachment to a committee.