The GOP-controlled House fails to impeach the homeland security secretary. What could come next?

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Republican-controlled House has failed to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas over the Biden administration's handling of the U.S.-Mexico border.

The vote Tuesday night marked the culmination of months of examination by House Republicans as they’ve aimed to make immigration and border security a key election issue.

But when it came down to the vote, Democrats were united against the charges, and Republicans, who have a razor-thin majority in the House, needed almost every vote they had to approve the two articles of impeachment against Mayorkas. They fell short.

This doesn't necessarily spell the end of the impeachment efforts. The House is likely to revisit the issue, but next steps are highly uncertain.

Here's a look at how the House arrived at the impeachment vote and where things go from here:

WHAT'S GOING ON AT THE BORDER?

Migrants have long come across the southern U.S. border looking for a new life in the United States, but not like what’s happening now. Arrests for illegal border crossings from Mexico reached an all-time high in December. In fiscal year 2022, Border Patrol encountered 2.2 million people crossing the border illegally. You have to go back decades to see comparable numbers.

Statistics aren’t always a perfect measure though. The numbers from the 1990s and 2000s are considered vast undercounts because migrants sought to evade authorities as they entered the U.S.

Decades ago, the typical migrant trying to come to the U.S. was a man from Mexico looking for work, and he tried to dodge Border Patrol agents. That dynamic has changed drastically. Migrants now are still coming from central and south America but they're also coming from much farther away — China,...