Democratic Rep. Al Green makes moves to force House vote on ninth attempt to impeach President Donald Trump
Democratic Representative Al Green of Texas has invoked a rare procedural maneuver to force the House of Representatives to hold a recorded vote on impeaching President Donald Trump, marking what Newsweek counted as the ninth attempt to impeach Trump since 2017 and the sixth led by Green.
Green announced the move at press conference in Washington, D.C., before introducing his measure on the House floor as a question of the privileges of the House under Rule IX. The mechanism allows lawmakers to force the chamber to consider a measure within two legislative days, meaning House Republican leaders must dispose of it during the September 14–17 legislative period.
The resolution, H.Res. 1486, was filed by Green on August 24. It accuses Trump of abusing presidential powers by allowing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Customs and Border Protection to operate without accountability, assault civilians and cover up killings, including those of Renée Good, Alex Pretti, Lorenzo Salgado Araujo and Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero.
Green notified Trump of the filing the same day, saying he would seek a recorded vote during the September 14–17 legislative period. He argued the measure was warranted because of high crimes and misdemeanors Trump had committed and continued to commit with impunity.
In a separate letter to House colleagues, Green urged Democrats not to wait for investigations.
“To those who say, ‘Wait until next year’ and ‘Buckle up’ when the investigations start, I say: How many more lives must we lose and how many more loved ones of victims have to plead for help before the self-evident evidence from videos and President Trump’s own words compel us to act?” Green wrote.
He said the available evidence showed Trump was unfit and dangerous to democracy.
Democratic leadership will vote ‘present’
House Democratic leaders moved to distance themselves from the effort without directly opposing it.
House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York, Democratic Whip Katherine Clark of Massachusetts and Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar of California said September 14 that they would vote “present” on a Republican motion to table the resolution, declining to support or oppose it.
“Impeachment is a sacred constitutional vehicle designed to hold a corrupt executive accountable for abuse of power, breaking the law and violating the public trust,” the three leaders said.
They argued impeachment traditionally requires a comprehensive investigation, review of thousands of documents, scrutiny of the evidence, witness testimony, congressional hearings, sustained public organizing and broad national consensus. They said that work had not been done because the Republican majority was focused on advancing Trump’s agenda.
The leaders said they would continue fighting to make life more affordable while holding “the crooks” accountable using every available tool.
Majority Leader Steve Scalise of Louisiana’s schedule indicated Republicans would move to table the resolution.
No co-sponsors and private anger within the caucus
No other member of Congress had signed on as a co-sponsor, according to congressional records. No Republicans were listed as co-sponsors when the resolution was introduced.
Behind closed doors, Democrats expressed frustration with the timing. The week of September 14 was the House’s final scheduled week in Washington before the midterm elections and vulnerable members preferred to campaign on prices and health care rather than another Trump impeachment effort.
Axios reported several complaints from House Democrats. One lawmaker accused Green of focusing on himself rather than strategy or coalition-building and said Democrats needed members focused on flipping the House.
Another Democrat said Green would energize what the lawmaker called the “non-strategic activist crowd” but questioned why he was empowering Trump, arguing that every failed attempt against the president could raise his approval rating.
A third lawmaker said that if Green forced the vote, “I have no choice but to vote for it,” citing pressure from the Democratic base.
Party leaders and others characterized the effort as a distraction.
The White House response
The administration rejected Green’s allegations when he filed the resolution in August.
White House spokeswoman Lauren Bis told Newsweek the resolution was garbage and contributed to an environment in which assaults against law enforcement officers had increased by more than 1,300 percent. She said ICE and CBP officers risked their lives to arrest murderers, rapists, pedophiles, gang members and terrorists.
The Department of Homeland Security said its officers are trained to use the minimum force necessary and receive ongoing de-escalation and use-of-force training. It said officers focus enforcement on people charged with or convicted of crimes.
The Republican National Committee’s research account posted a clip of Green’s September 14 remarks, calling the effort a partisan use of House time and accusing Democrats of wasting taxpayer money.
The four deaths behind the resolution
Green’s single article of impeachment centers on four fatal shootings involving federal immigration officers.
Renée Nicole Macklin Good, a 37-year-old American woman, was fatally shot by ICE agent Jonathan Ross in Minneapolis on January 7 during Operation Metro Surge.
Good was in her car, stopped sideways in the street, when Ross approached on foot. Other agents also approached, with one ordering her out while reaching through her open window. Good briefly reversed before moving forward and to the right toward traffic. Ross, positioned near the front-left of the vehicle, fired three shots, killing her.
On January 24, Alex Jeffrey Pretti, a 37-year-old American intensive care nurse for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, was shot multiple times and killed by two Customs and Border Protection officers on Nicollet Avenue in Minneapolis.
The shooting occurred during protests over Operation Metro Surge and Good’s killing. Pretti was attempting to help a civilian who had been pepper-sprayed.
Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a 52-year-old Mexican immigrant who had lived in the United States for 35 years, was killed in Houston on July 7. He worked in construction. ICE alleged that Salgado Araujo used his vehicle as a weapon, a claim disputed by his family, elected officials and civil rights groups.
On July 13, Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, a 25-year-old Colombian immigrant, was shot and killed by ICE officer David Brouillette during a traffic stop in Biddeford, Maine.
His vehicle was rammed by an ICE vehicle as he circled an intersection after his car had been shot at five times. Durán Guerrero suffered a fatal head injury and was pronounced dead at the scene. ICE agents were executing a search warrant, but Durán Guerrero was not its target.
Sources confirmed that neither Salgado Araujo nor Durán Guerrero was the target of the immigration operations. In both shootings, the agents involved were not wearing body cameras.
The sponsor’s political position
Green lost his primary to Christian Menefee, a younger Democrat campaigning on generational change, in May and will leave Congress at the end of his term. The September floor fight is therefore one of his final opportunities to bring an impeachment resolution before the House as a sitting member.
Fox News Digital described Green as a 79-year-old progressive.
Green was previously escorted from the House chamber during Trump’s address to a joint session of Congress after Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana warned him to sit down and ordered the sergeant at arms to remove him. Green had stood in the aisle and waved his cane at Trump.
“If you get in the way, if you’re arrested, then you’ve got to be willing to suffer the consequences,” Green told reporters at the Capitol.
He was removed after repeatedly interrupting the president.
Full list of impeachment efforts and votes
December 2017: Green filed his first impeachment resolution against Trump. The House voted to table it, with 58 Democrats voting against tabling.
January 2018: Green filed H.Res. 705 after Trump made remarks about immigrants from Haiti and African nations. The House voted 355-66 to table it, with 121 Democrats joining 234 Republicans.
July 2019: Green filed H.Res. 498 over Trump’s comments about four Democratic congresswomen of color. The House voted 332-95 to table it. Democratic Representative Peter DeFazio of Oregon was the only member to vote present. Then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California opposed the effort.
December 2019: The House Judiciary Committee approved two articles of impeachment over Trump’s dealings with Ukraine: abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. The full House impeached Trump largely along party lines. The Senate acquitted him in February 2020.
January 2021: Days after the Capitol attack, the House impeached Trump a second time, 232-197, on a single article of incitement of insurrection. The Senate voted 57-43 to convict, falling 10 votes short of the two-thirds threshold required for removal.
April–May 2025: Democratic Representative Shri Thanedar of Michigan filed seven articles of impeachment against Trump, with Green as a co-sponsor. Thanedar moved to force a floor vote in May but withdrew it hours before it was scheduled after Democratic Representatives Jamie Raskin of Maryland and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, among others, urged him to stand down.
June 2025: Green filed and forced a vote on an article accusing Trump of abuse of power for ordering strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities without congressional authorization. The House voted 344-79 to table the resolution. One hundred twenty-eight Democrats, including the caucus’s top three leaders, voted with Republicans to table it, while 79 Democrats opposed the motion.
“I take no delight in what I’m doing,” Green said ahead of the vote. “I do this because no one person should have the power to take over 300 million people to war without consulting with the Congress of the United States of America.”
December 2025: Green filed H.Res.939 after Trump responded to a video in which six Democratic lawmakers with military or intelligence backgrounds told service members they did not have to follow unlawful orders. Trump called the video seditious behavior punishable by death.
A Republican motion to table the resolution passed 237-140, with 47 Democrats voting present and 23 voting to table it. Jeffries, Clark and Aguilar voted present rather than joining Green.
August–September: Green filed H.Res.1486 on August 24 and moved September 14 to force a floor vote.
What happens if Democrats win both chambers
Trump has been impeached twice, making him the only U.S. president to face impeachment more than once. The Senate acquitted him both times.
Trump himself has raised the possibility of a third impeachment.
“You’ve got to win the midterms,” he told House Republicans at a retreat earlier this year. “I’ll get impeached.”
House impeachment requires a simple majority. Republicans currently hold a narrow majority, while recent polling averages show Democrats with an advantage on the generic congressional ballot. Democrats would need to gain a small number of seats to take control of the House on November 3, when all 435 seats are up for election.
The Senate presents a tougher path. Democrats would need to flip four Republican-held seats to take control, according to Reuters, while holding every seat they currently have. Even with a Senate majority, removing Trump would require two-thirds of senators present to vote for conviction following a trial.
Former Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross told Newsweek in June that he expected Democrats to pursue impeachment if they won the House and said a Democratic Senate would convict Trump.
Raskin, who led the 2021 impeachment effort, told NBC News in July that impeachment alone would not resolve Democrats’ concerns.
“We’ve already impeached him twice,” he said. “So obviously that’s not a complete solution, given that he is able to beat the two-thirds constitutional spread.”
Jeffries has argued that the Republican majority would never allow articles of impeachment to reach the floor because Trump would direct them not to. He said a meaningful bipartisan investigation remained an option.
In comments the White House has used in response to multiple polling inquiries, spokesman Davis Ingle told Newsweek: “The ultimate poll was November 5th 2024 when nearly 80 million Americans overwhelmingly elected President Trump to deliver on his popular and commonsense agenda.”