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The Republican-led House of Representatives failed in a knife-edge vote to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas over the migrant crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border.
Four Republicans joined all Democrats in the chamber in voting 216-214 against the bill.
Opponents of U.S. President Joe Biden have blamed Mayorkas for the surge in illegal immigration on the U.S. frontier.
Border security is a top political issue in the 2024 election.
Three Republican defectors, Colorado's Ken Buck, California's Tom McClintock and Wisconsin's Mike Gallagher, voted against the bill Tuesday night.
A fourth, Utah's Blake Moore, switched a yes vote to a no vote as a procedural ploy to allow Republicans to reintroduce the resolution at a time of their choosing.
There was a moment of uproar when Texas Democratic Rep. Al Green, wearing hospital scrubs, was wheeled to the floor to vote no. He was undergoing surgery in the emergency room.
Even if the House passes, Mayorkas is unlikely to be convicted in the Democratic-controlled Senate.
The impeachment process was started by Georgia Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene, who said after the vote that she would try to impeach again.
“I think we're going to hear from my colleagues and voters who voted no,” he told reporters outside the Capitol.
Looking ahead, House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters Wednesday that he was confident Republicans would “get it done in the next round.”
“It's a close call here, and every vote counts. Sometimes unexpected people show up in the building during vote counting and change the equation. ” he said. .
“You're looking at a messy sausage driving the democratic process,” he said.
“We need to hold the Secretary of Homeland Security accountable. We need to hold Mr. Mayorkas accountable. We need to hold the Biden administration accountable, and we will pass these articles of impeachment. ”
WATCH: Burchett says BBC border impeachment vote could be restarted
House Speaker Raj Shah, a spokesperson for Johnson, wrote in a post on X that Republicans would try to impeach Mayorkas again “if we have the votes to pass.”
Several congressional Republicans said the setback would not affect the separate impeachment inquiry into President Biden.
Signs of opposition to Mr. Mayorkas' vote surfaced earlier in the day among rank-and-file members of the party.
McClintock said Tuesday morning that he would vote against impeachment, saying the article “fails to identify the impeachable crimes committed by Mayorkas” and “stretches and distorts the Constitution.”
Impeachment is a process enshrined in the U.S. Constitution that is the first step in removing a federal official for a high crime or misdemeanor.
image source, library of congress
William Belknap was the last Cabinet member to be impeached in 1876
Passage would require a simple majority in the House of Representatives and a two-thirds majority in the Senate. Democrats currently control the Senate.
The last Cabinet member to be impeached was Secretary of War William Belknap in 1876, but he resigned just before the vote.
“This baseless impeachment should never have proceeded. It faces bipartisan opposition and legal experts are adamant that it is unconstitutional,” a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said in a statement. .
“If House Republicans are serious about border security, they should abandon this political game,” he added.
House Republicans held two hearings in January accusing Mayorkas of failing to enforce immigration policy and of lying to lawmakers about whether the southern border was secure.
The secretary did not testify at the hearing.
Before Tuesday's vote, Massachusetts Democrat Jim McGovern said Republicans wanted to “create chaos, create confusion and create a campaign issue for Donald Trump in the next election.” he said.
WATCH: A look at the U.S. border as immigration debate heats up
But Republican Chip Roy of Texas argued that Mayorkas had failed to enforce U.S. immigration laws “in a manner that directly led to the deaths of not just immigrants, but American citizens.”
A poll conducted in January by the BBC's US partner CBS found that 63% of Americans want “tougher” border policies.
More than 6.3 million immigrants are known to have entered the United States illegally since Biden took office in 2021.
About 2.4 million people have been admitted to the United States, and most are awaiting immigration court dates to apply for asylum. This can take years, as the system is very heavily loaded.
This week, a bipartisan group of U.S. senators announced legislation that would strengthen border security efforts and provide additional aid to Ukraine and Israel.
House Republicans rejected the bill outright.
Immediately after Tuesday's impeachment vote, the House of Commons considered another Republican bill providing $17.6 billion (£14 billion) to Israel, but this also failed.
