It took them two tries. But in the end, House Republicans were finally able to realize their dreams of impeaching Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. “For nearly a year, the House Homeland Security Committee has taken a careful and methodical approach to this investigation, and the results are clear,” Speaker Mike Johnson said in a statement Tuesday.

“Careful and methodical,” you say? That’s generous. The two articles they rang him up on—the “willful and systemic refusal to comply with the law” and the “breach of public trust”—were vague and based on policy disagreements, not high crimes and misdemeanors, as even some Republicans acknowledged. “This is a terrible impeachment,” Ken Buck, one of three House Republicans to vote against it, said on CNN Tuesday. “It sets a terrible precedent.”

Of course, that didn’t matter to most of his conference colleagues, who have made clear that they are willing to do whatever it takes to help Donald Trump exploit immigration as a 2024 issue—even if it means passing on an opportunity to actually enact the border policies they say they want. “The one and only reason for this impeachment is for Speaker Johnson to further appease Donald Trump,” said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.

The impeachment is sure to fail in the Democratically-controlled Senate. But Republicans are lucky the push is even making it to the upper chamber. They already failed once, last week, because apparently, Johnson and impeachment ringleader Marjorie Taylor Greene didn’t account for the possibility Democrat Al Green might leave the hospital to vote—and they would have suffered another embarrassing defeat Tuesday, even with Steve Scalise back, had two Democrats not missed the vote. (Judy Chu had tested positive for COVID-19, and Lois Frankel was apparently stuck at Palm Beach International Airport due to a mechanical issue with a plane.) Republicans basked in their symbolic triumph Tuesday. But the 214-213 tally wasn’t a show of strength as much as it reflected how narrow and fragile their majority is.

Their razor-thin margins are about to get even thinner following the victory of New York Democrat Tom Suozzi in the race to fill George Santos’ vacant seat. “We, you, won this race because we addressed the issues, and we found a way to bind our divisions,” Suozzi said in a victory speech, capping a campaign in which he’d blasted opponent Mazi Pilip and her party for rejecting the bipartisan Senate border deal brokered by Republican James Lankford, Independent Kyrsten Sinema, and Democrat Chris Murphy. (Murphy urged his party to “learn a lesson” from Suozzi’s win: “Seize this opportunity to go on the offensive on the issue of the border,” he said, “and turn the tables on Republicans.” The twice-impeached Trump, for his part, scorned Pilip as a “very foolish woman” who lost because she didn’t embrace him.)

Johnson, who ascended to the speakership after the spectacular downfall of Kevin McCarthy, now faces even more daunting math than his predecessor—able to afford only two Republican defections to get anything done with all members present. It’s possible, then, that the Mayorkas impeachment could be his most significant achievement for the foreseeable future. And what an accomplishment: a political exercise he could barely get over the finish line. “History will not look kindly on House Republicans,” Joe Biden said in a statement Tuesday, “for their blatant act of unconstitutional partisanship that has targeted an honorable public servant in order to play petty political games.”