Senate conservatives unsuccessfully attempted to pass a resolution expressing a lack of confidence in Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas, who is likely to be impeached by the Republican-led House.

Sen. Roger Marshall (R-KS), joined by several of his Senate colleagues, requested that the measure be adopted without a formal vote on Tuesday, but Sen. Tom Carper (D-DE), the former chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, objected.

The measure is a nonstarter in the Democratic-led Senate, but the vote served to register the disapproval of Republicans, who accuse Mayorkas of being derelict in his duties as border crossings reach record numbers. He was joined by Sens. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Rick Scott (R-FL), and other conservatives in a series of speeches made from the Senate floor.

“The Biden administration has for all practical purposes erased our southern border and embraced a structure of complete lawlessness, letting our national security hang in the balance,” Marshall said, calling Mayorkas complicit in the border crisis.

The resolution cites the trafficking of fentanyl and apprehension of terror watch list suspects as reasons for his censure. But it also accuses Mayorkas of lying to Congress when he maintained that the administration has “operational control” of the border.

He joins his House colleagues in urging the secretary to step down. The lower chamber will hold the first hearing of its impeachment proceedings against Mayorkas on Wednesday.

“For his role in peddling Joe Biden’s deliberate destruction of America’s borders, DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas must be impeached and removed from his office,” Marshall told the Washington Examiner in a statement. “The threat that his presence within our federal government poses to America’s national security and the safety of her people is too great for Congress to stand idly by.”

Carper defended Mayorkas as a “family man” and “someone who deserves our thanks, not the back of our hand” in objecting to Marshall’s request. He cited the “constructive” role Mayorkas has played in Senate border talks, providing negotiators with department information as they attempt to forge a bipartisan compromise on border security.

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The Democrat called the border crisis “unacceptable” and “unsustainable” but blamed corruption and violence in South America for the influx. 

Should the House vote to impeach Mayorkas later this month, the Senate would serve as the jury for those charges. The chamber, which Democrats control with a bare 51-vote majority, is unlikely to convict Mayorkas, but the trial would put centrists up for reelection in a tough spot politically.