The House Homeland Security Committee approved two articles of impeachment against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas in the early morning hours Wednesday, clearing a major hurdle that tees up a floor vote as soon as next week.

In a daylong mark-up hearing that stretched past midnight, lawmakers voted along party lines to move ahead with impeaching Mayorkas for his handling of the southern border crisis. A majority vote of the full chamber would make him the first Cabinet official to be impeached since 1876.

“Today is a grave day. We have not approached this day or this process lightly. Secretary Mayorkas’s actions have forced our hand. We cannot allow this border crisis to continue. We cannot allow fentanyl to flood across our border or criminals to waltz in undeterred,” said Homeland Security Chairman Mark Green (R-TN). “We cannot allow a Cabinet secretary with no regard for the separation of powers, the rule of law, to remain in office. That is why today we present this committee with the articles of impeachment against Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.”

The articles, approved in an 18-15 vote at just after 1 a.m., accuse Mayorkas of willful and systemic refusal to comply with the law and a breach of the public trust. Republicans revealed the charges Sunday morning, building momentum in the 48 hours before the mark-up began.

“Alejandro N. Mayorkas has repeatedly violated laws enacted by Congress regarding immigration and border security. In large part because of his unlawful conduct, millions of aliens have illegally entered the United States on an annual basis with many unlawfully remaining in the United States,” the articles state. “His refusal to obey the law is not only an offense against the separation of powers in the Constitution of the United States, it also threatens our national security and has had a dire impact on communities across the country.”

The articles will now proceed to the House Rules Committee for review before a full House floor vote. To impeach Mayorkas, at least 218 lawmakers must vote yes in a chamber Republicans narrowly control, 221 seats to Democrats’ 213.

Republicans have called for Mayorkas’s impeachment over the past three years, and conservative firebrand Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) has twice introduced articles against Mayorkas and pushed the chamber to remove the secretary.

However, the GOP waited until the start of an election year to attempt to strip him of his title. Since President Joe Biden took office and Mayorkas was confirmed by the Senate in January 2021, more than 7.5 million illegal immigrants have been encountered attempting to enter the United States, and 6 million of that figure entered illegally between ports of entry, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data. The Biden figure far exceeds the number of illegal immigrants encountered during the Trump administration’s four years and Obama administration’s eight years combined.

Mayorkas admitted in a private meeting with Border Patrol officials in Eagle Pass, Texas, last month that 85% of illegal immigrants caught at the border were released into the U.S.

Democrats warned on the eve of the mark-up that Republicans’ impeachment proceedings were unfounded and lambasted two House Republicans in particular for moving on the issue.

“House Republicans have produced no evidence that Secretary Mayorkas has committed an impeachable offense,” House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) said during a press conference. “This is a political stunt and a hit job ordered by two people: Donald Trump and Marjorie Taylor Greene.”

Mississippi Rep. Bennie Thompson, the top Democrat on the committee, alleged during the hearing that the impeachment effort was designed to distract from the GOP’s governing failures.

“When Republicans took control of the House of Representatives, they had an opportunity to work with the White House and the Senate to move the country forward. Instead, they have consumed, have been consumed by petty infighting during multiple Speaker contests, unforced crises over government shutdowns, and futile political exercises like impeachment to satisfy the extreme MAGA base,” Thompson said during the hearing. “The MAGA-led impeachment of Secretary Mayorkas is a baseless sham, and the few rational Republicans left in the House know that – even if they refuse to admit it.”

In a 29-page report that committee Democrats released Monday afternoon, lawmakers slammed Republicans for allegedly botching the legal process leading up to impeachment and defended Mayorkas’s job performance over the past 36 months.

Mayorkas sent the committee a letter in the early morning hours of Tuesday in which he told Republicans that he was not fearful of the Republican effort.

“I assure you that your false accusations do not rattle me and do not divert me from the law enforcement and broader public service mission to which I have devoted most of my career and to which I remain devoted,” Mayorkas said.