THE US HOUSE of Representatives has voted to impeach the country’s Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas in an escalation of the ongoing dispute over the policing of the US-Mexico border.

President Joe Biden criticised the House Republicans for playing “petty political games” and described the move as “unconstitutional”. 

The Republican majority, who secured a single-vote win after leader Steve Scalise returned from cancer treatment, is determined to punish Biden’s administration over its handling of the Mexico border.

This is the second time in as many weeks that Republicans have attempted to impeach Mayorkas, after failing to secure the numbers in a vote last week. 

Mayorkas is the first US Cabinet secretary to be impeached in nearly 150 years. 

“Next to a declaration of war, impeachment is arguably the most serious authority given to the House and we have treated this matter accordingly,” said House Speaker Mike Johnson.

“Since this secretary refuses to do the job that the Senate confirmed him to do, the House must act.”

Mayorkas faces two articles of impeachment filed by the Homeland Security Committee arguing that he “willfully and systematically” refused to enforce existing immigration laws and that he breached the public trust by lying to Congress and saying the border was secure.

The Department of Homeland Security has a wide range of responsibilities, including border security, anti-terrorism, customs and immigration. 

Biden said in a statement: “History will not look kindly on House Republicans for their blatant act of unconstitutional partisanship that has targeted an honourable public servant in order to play petty political games.”

The House of Representatives had initially launched an impeachment inquiry into the president over his son Hunter’s business dealings, but turned its attention to Mayorkas after former president Donald Trump’s ally Marjorie Taylor Greene pushed the debate forward following the panel’s months-long investigation.

The impeachment is more symbolic than substantial, however. The charges against Mayorkas would next go to the Senate for a trial but he is likely to be acquitted by the Democrat-led body. 

“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,” said Mia Ehrenberg, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security.

Impeachment is meant to be a sanction for treason, bribery and other “high crimes and misdemeanors,” according to the constitution.

Border policy has become an even more heated topic in recent months that it was at the height of the Trump presidency, with the Republican front-runner for the presidential nomination promising to launch “the largest domestic deportation operation in American history” if he retakes the White House.

Various House Republicans have prepared legislation to begin deporting migrants who were temporarily allowed into the US under the Biden administration’s policies, many of whom are waiting on judgements in their asylum claims.

“We have no choice,” Trump said at a weekend rally in South Carolina.

Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson rejected a bipartisan Senate border security package but has been unable to advance Republicans’ own proposal on border policy.

House Republicans have filed legislation to impeach a long list of Biden administration officials, including Vice President Kamala Harris, Attorney General Merrick Garland, FBI director Christopher Wray and Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin.

Never before has a sitting Cabinet secretary been impeached and it was nearly 150 years ago that the House voted to impeach president Ulysses S Grant’s secretary of war William Belknap over a kickback scheme in government contracts. He resigned before the vote.

Includes reporting from Press Association and AFP