The House will vote tonight for the second time on whether to impeach Alejandro Mayorkas, the homeland security secretary, on charges of willfully refusing to enforce border laws. Last week, Republicans suffered a stunning embarrassment when their yearlong push to impeach him failed on its first attempt.

But Republicans now expect to have an additional vote: Representative Steve Scalise, who is back in Washington after cancer treatment. Our congressional reporter Karoun Demirjian told me it is likely that tonight’s attempt will be successful, making Mayorkas the first sitting cabinet secretary to be impeached in American history. Here’s the latest.

Mayorkas is charged with ignoring immigration laws and acting outside his authority to release migrants on parole. But experts say that the allegations against Mayorkas do not rise to the level of high crimes and misdemeanors, the standard for impeachment. Many constitutional law experts, both conservative and liberal, have criticized the impeachment as an attempt to resolve a policy dispute with a constitutional punishment.

There is effectively no chance Mayorkas will be removed from office by the Democratic-led Senate, since that would require two-thirds of votes. But this was never about conviction, Karoun said.

“You don’t need to be ousted from office for the black mark of being an impeached officer to have meaning,” Karoun said. “That is politically potent stuff to point out on the campaign trail.”