House Republicans moved in historic fashion and impeached Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas by a single vote on Tuesday night, succeeding on their second try in punishing the steward of President Biden’s immigration policy.

The unprecedented and partisan resolution — which cleared the House over opposition from Democrats and three GOP members — may not go very far in the Senate, as some Republicans in the upper chamber do not believe that Mayorkas’s actions clear the bar for the high crimes and misdemeanors necessary for conviction. But Mayorkas is the first sitting Cabinet secretary to be impeached and some bipartisan and legal observers worry that the most serious tool the U.S. Constitution provides to rein in a public official is being misused as partisan weapon.

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