The move comes as political tensions mount over the issue of immigration, as Republicans blame a surge of migrants at the country's southern border on Democratic President Joe Biden and his top border official.

"Secretary Mayorkas's actions have forced our hand."

Representative Mark Green is the Republican chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee.

"That is why today we present this Committee with the articles of impeachment against Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas."

In a party-line vote, the committee passed articles of impeachment alleging Mayorkas intentionally encouraged illegal immigration with lax policies and violated public trust by making false statements to Congress.

Democrats have dismissed the impeachment effort as a political ploy and constitutional experts have said the policy criticisms outlined by Republicans do not meet impeachment's high standard of misconduct.

Representative Bennie Thompson is the ranking Democrat on the committee:

"Republicans have ignored the facts, and misrepresented the law, to justify their scheme. But the law is clear, and so is [the] secretary's record. He has leveraged the full range of authorities at his disposal, while stretching the resources provided by Congress to secure the border."

Mayorkas - a former federal prosecutor - defended his immigration enforcement record in a letter to Green.

He wrote, "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."

The secretary earlier this month offered to appear before the committee in his own defense. But Republicans proceeded to debate the impeachment charges without his testimony. Here's Republican Representative Clay Higgins:

"We're losing our country down there. And the man responsible for executing that policy, is Alejandro Mayorkas. He will be impeached through this committee, this day."

Border security is a core issue for Republican voters concerned about a record number of migrants illegally crossing the border since Biden took office in 2021.

Republicans fault Biden for rolling back restrictive policies of Republican former President Donald Trump, the leading candidate for his party's nomination to challenge Biden.

The Democratic president last week embraced a yet-unreleased bipartisan Senate deal that would grant the president new authority to expel migrants back to Mexico.

But Donald Trump has been pushing back against that proposal saying he doesn't want to see an immigration deal in an election year.

Democratic lawmakers called that 'hypocrisy.' Here's Representative Dan Goldman:

"So your own party is sabotaging and undermining this administration's efforts to address the border, while you are trying to impeach him by saying, they're not addressing the border. The hypocrisy is the least of it."

The impeachment charges next go to a vote in the full House of Representatives. If impeached by the Republican-controlled chamber, Mayorkas likely would be acquitted in the Senate, where Democrats have a slim majority.