Republicans in the House of Representatives have suceeded in impeaching Joe Biden’s top border official, homeland security secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, after the motion slipped to an embarrassing defeat last week.

       The vote succeeded along party lines lines, winning 214-213.

       Three Republicans joined Democrats in voting against the articles of impeachment.

       House GOP members accuse Mr Mayorkas of failing to stem record flows of migrants across the US-Mexico border, an issue their likely presidential candidate Donald Trump intends to make the central pillar of his election campaign this year.

       Mr Mayorkas oversees border enforcement and immigration policies, such as the asylum process and the possible detention of migrants.

       As such, many Republicans view him as the prime target for their frustration at the rapid rise of border crossings.

       However, those in favour of impeachment have struggled to provide evidence that Mr Mayorkas is guilty of high crimes and misdemeanours – the constitutional standard for impeachment.

       The secretary has said denied responsibility for the border situation, blaming it instead on a broken immigration system that Congress has not been able to fix and has dismissed the impeachment putsch as an unconstitutional and baseless “stunt” that will not solve the problem.