The US House Homeland Security Committee held its first impeachment hearing on Wednesday into Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. The hearing was initiated by House Republicans who accused Mayorkas of failing to follow immigration law and of violating the public trust as border crossings have reached record levels.

Chairman Mark Greene (R-TN) of the Homeland Security Committee called Mayorkas’s performance a “gross incompetence” and “willful violation” of a “parole” policy that formally was used only as a rare exception. He blames the high 10,000 border encounters a day as a direct result of Mayorkas’ refusal to enforce the laws of Congress.

Ranking member Bennie Thompson (D-MS) opposed the impeachment hearings. He said, “[Y]ou cannot impeach a Cabinet secretary because you do not like a president’s policy” and that “that’s not what impeachments for…that’s not what the Constitution says.” Thompson also accused Republicans of being unwilling to approve funds that would put “boots on the ground” along the US’s southern border. Thompson emphasized that Republicans rejected the White House proposal that combined military aid for Ukraine with $14 billion to hire additional border agents, asylum officers and immigration judges—among other funding priorities.

The hearing included testimony from the attorney generals of Montana, Oklahoma and Missouri—states led by Republican governors—who said they have dealt with impacts from Mayorkas’s policies, even though none of them neighbor Mexico. Attorney General Montana Austin Knudsen noted there had been a devastating fentanyl crisis in Montana. He claimed that the Native American population is significantly impacted by the drug trade and human trafficking as a result of the illegal crossings. The Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond claimed that  Mayorkas has not held the criminal foreign nationals accountable. Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey claimed that the Mayorkas’s refusal to finish the border wall has woefully compounded the issue.

All three of the Republican attorney generals argued that their states have been forced to bear the brunt of drug cartels because the federal government’s inaction. Greene asked each of the tttorney generals if Mayorkas had failed to enforce laws passed by Congress. All three answered in the affirmative.

However, legal experts warned that policy disputes, even if contentious, do not meet the constitutional impeachment threshold of high crimes and misdemeanors. A law professor specializing in impeachment, Frank Bowman, stated that to meet the constitutional threshold for impeachment, the crime committed must be treason, bribery or other “high crimes and misdemeanors.” He said that the accusations against the secretary do not rise to that level and therefore undermine constitutional understanding. Bowman said that the complaints are not impeachable actions such as corruption, abuse of power or subversion of the US Constitution.

Longstanding committee member Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX) reminded her Republican colleagues that they are all lawyers who have taken an oath. She claimed that there is clearly no evidence against Mayorkas. She said, “Instead, sit with us to establish justice; you diminish the Constitution by this accusation.”

Even if convicted in the Republican-controlled House, the Democrat’s slim majority in the Senate would unlikely find Mayorkas guilty of any crimes. Still, if the House impeached him, he would be the first cabinet official in nearly 150 years to go through the process.