Watch: Republican House panel pushes forward with Mayorkas impeachment debate

Watch as a Republican-led US House of Representatives panel debates impeachment charges against Alejandro Mayorkas on Tuesday, 30 January.

The House Homeland Security Committee will consider two articles of impeachment for the US president's top border official.

Charges against the Homeland Security Secretary allege that he intentionally encouraged illegal immigration with lax policies and violated public trust by making false statements to Congress.

The impeachment effort has been dismissed by Democrats as a political ploy, and constitutional experts have said that the criticisms of policy do not meet the high levels of misconduct for impeachment.

Mr Mayorkas will defend his immigration enforcement record in a letter to Representative Mark Green, the Republican chairman of the Homeland committee, on Tuesday.

"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," Mr Mayorkas wrote.