Republicans in the House of Representatives voted to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, an attempt to rebuke the Biden administration's policies at the U.S.-Mexico border.

The final vote was 214-213, with three Republicans voting against the measure. The measure now heads to the Democratic-led Senate, which is widely expected to kill the measure.

Tuesday's action comes after last week's failed vote, in which three Republicans break with their party to sink the measure (a fourth changed his vote for procedural reasons), was a stunning and embarrassing moment for the House Republican conference with their razor-thin majority.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., got a slight reprieve in the form of House Majority Leader Steve Scalise's return to Washington after undergoing cancer treatment, which helped to bolster his conference's numbers. It was enough to put the measure over the top by one vote.

Last week's final vote was 214-216. Four Republicans -- Colorado Rep. Ken Buck, California Rep. Tom McClintock, Utah Rep. Blake Moore and Wisconsin Rep. Mike Gallagher -- joined all Democrats to sink the measure. (Moore, the vice chair of the House GOP conference, changed his vote from a yes to a no in a procedural move so the impeachment measure could be brought up again.)

The same trio of Republicans voted against the measure on Tuesday.

Last week's vote was initially tied at 215-215 (which would have also killed the measure) for several minutes, during which time several Republican lawmakers surrounded Gallagher in an attempt to get him to change his vote. Democrats shouted for the vote to be gaveled out and cheered as it failed. Gallagher has since announced that he will retire from Congress at the end of this term.

Minutes after the vote, House Republicans suffered another devastating setback when a $17 billion Israel aid bill unveiled over the weekend by House Speaker Mike Johnson failed in a bipartisan 250-180 vote. 

The vote was the culmination of a monthslong push by House Republicans to punish Mayorkas -- and President Joe Biden by extension -- for what they describe as the Democratic administration's failure to secure the U.S.-Mexico border. But Democrats have long railed against the impeachment of Mayorkas, calling it a sham and an effort to appease the frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination, Donald Trump.

"Clearly there is bipartisan agreement that this baseless, unconstitutional impeachment stunt should fail," Ian Sams, White House spokesperson for oversight and investigations, said after last week's failed vote. "House Republicans ought to realize that extreme political stunts like this are a waste of time, and instead join the President, Secretary Mayorkas, and Republicans and Democrats who want to work together to deliver real solutions that actually strengthen border security.”

"Secretary Mayorkas is a good man, a patriotic man and a hard-working man doing the best he can under very difficult circumstances," House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said during the debate last week on the impeachment measure. "That's not an impeachable offense. Extreme MAGA Republicans have produced no evidence that Secretary Mayorkas has engaged in a high crime or misdemeanor, no evidence that Secretary Mayorkas has engaged in impeachable offense and no evidence that Secretary Mayorkas has broken the law or violated the Constitution. Not a shred of evidence. Not a scintilla of evidence."

Jeffries went on to accuse House Republicans of avoiding "doing the hard work necessary to find common ground to actually address the challenges at the border," and said the impeachment charges being brought against Mayorkas were "not anchored in reality."

"You brought articles of impeachment for one simple reason: because you really want to impeach Joe Biden," he charged. "That’s what you were directed to do by the puppet master, the former president of the United States, Donald Trump. You really want to impeach Joe Biden, but you realize that that is politically unpopular.”

The Republicans who opposed the measure said that Mayorkas' conduct had not risen to the level of impeachment, which is reserved typically for "high crimes and misdemeanors."

Colorado Rep. Ken Buck wrote in an op-ed that Mayorkas' conduct is not grounds for impeachment.

"To be clear, Secretary Mayorkas has completely failed at his job. He is incompetent. He is an embarrassment," Buck charged. "And he will most likely be remembered as the worst secretary of Homeland Security in the history of the United States. However, the Constitution is clear that impeachment is reserved for 'Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.' Maladministration or incompetence does not rise to what our founders considered an impeachable offense."

"Partisan impeachments that do not meet the constitutional standard will boomerang back and hurt Republicans in the future," Buck continued. "I can envision a future Republican administration where a Democrat-led House uses this precedent to act against a Republican Cabinet member who isn’t discharging their duties in a way that Democrats desire."

McClintock also came out against the impeachment effort, saying the articles "fail to identify an impeachable crime that Mayorkas has committed. In effect, they stretch and distort the Constitution in order to hold the administration accountable."

"The only way to stop the border invasion is to replace the Biden administration at the ballot box," he wrote on social media. "Swapping one leftist for another is a fantasy, solves nothing, excuses Biden’s culpability, and unconstitutionally expands impeachment that someday will bite Republicans."

Mayorkas becomes the second Cabinet member to be impeached in U.S. history. The only Cabinet official ever to be impeached was Secretary of War William Belknap in 1876 over corruption allegations. The Senate acquitted him.

Spectrum News' Ryan Chatelain contributed to this report.