The House Homeland Security Committee held its second and final impeachment hearing into Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Thursday, with lawmakers looking to move forward with an impeachment resolution as early as this month. 

The four-hour hearing comes just one week after the committee held its first impeachment proceeding against Mayorkas, detailing the findings of its yearlong investigation into the top border official so far. The meeting is the final hearing of Mayorkas’s impeachment proceedings, and it comes as the committee plans a markup on an impeachment resolution later this month, a source familiar with the situation confirmed to the Washington Examiner.

Lawmakers heard from three witnesses on Thursday, including Tammy Nobles, whose daughter was killed in the summer of 2022 by a suspected undocumented minor who was previously arrested in El Salvador due to ties to the MS-13 gang. The other witnesses were Deborah Pearlstein, director of the law and public policy program at Princeton University, and private citizen Josephine Dunn.

The committee initially planned to hear testimony from Mayorkas himself, although the Biden administration official later declined to attend due to scheduling conflicts. Mayorkas was scheduled to address the U.S. Conference of Mayors on Thursday afternoon in Washington.

Committee Chairman Mark Green (R-TX) accused the secretary of refusing to appear before the panel, claiming Mayorkas has skirted requests since late last summer. The Department of Homeland Security pushed back on those accusations, alleging the committee has failed “to find a mutually agreeable date.”

Mayorkas’s absence served as a focal point during Thursday’s hearing, resulting in a tense back-and-forth between Republicans and Democrats on the committee. During his opening statement, ranking member Bennie Thompson (D-MS) submitted a request for Democrats on the committee to hold their own hearing with their chosen witnesses.

“Secretary Mayorkas has been willing to appear before this committee,” Thompson said. “He’s not running from anything. He’s been to the Capitol Hill 27 times since he was sworn in. I’m furnishing you with a demand for a minority day hearing on this subject.”

Green pushed back on that request, arguing that House rules only mandate the majority party to allow minority witnesses rather than an entire hearing dedicated to their defense. That prompted a disagreement from Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY), who argued that impeachment hearings have a precedent to allow the minority party “to have a hearing of its own choice and its own witnesses.”

“That has happened in every single impeachment in history,” Goldman said. “If this is going to be an impeachment process, then there have to be rights and due process afforded to the individual who is being impeached.”

Green sidestepped the request, noting an “interpretation disagreement” on whether the minority is entitled to its own hearing. The committee chairman said he would meet with Thompson later to discuss further.

A date for when committee members will begin consideration of an impeachment resolution has not yet been announced, but an internal memo obtained by the Hill this week shows that lawmakers have scheduled a markup on Jan. 31. Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX), who sits on the committee, later confirmed that timeline to reporters.

A markup this month tees the impeachment resolution up for a vote as soon as next month, but the timeline for those proceedings is not yet clear.

Democrats have decried those efforts, accusing their GOP counterparts of using impeachment as a political attack based on policy differences. 

“You cannot impeach a Cabinet secretary because you don’t like a President’s policies,” Thompson said. “That’s not what impeachment is for. That’s not what the Constitution says. Unfortunately, Republicans are willing to damage the Constitution they claim to hold dear because they think it will benefit them politically.”

House conservatives have pushed for months to remove Mayorkas from his top position in the Department of Homeland Security, with a handful of members even introducing their own articles of impeachment last year. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) has been one of the most outspoken proponents of impeachment, even going so far as to force her colleagues to vote on his removal late last year. 

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The effort later failed on the floor due to insufficient Republican support, but Greene vowed to continue introducing the impeachment articles until action is taken. She later backed off those efforts after receiving guarantees from House leaders that they would move forward with impeachment proceedings.

The latest hearing comes as House Republicans increasingly have turned their attention to border security in recent weeks, a top matter for voters heading into the 2024 election. GOP lawmakers have pushed for months to remove Mayorkas from his position in the Biden administration, pointing to record-high border crossings since he took over the Department of Homeland Security in 2021.