WASHINGTON – The U.S. Senate on Wednesday rejected two articles of impeachment against Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas.
The Democratic-controlled House voted in favor 51-49 along party linesto postpone the impeachment trial after finding that the articles of impeachment, which accuse Mayorkas of failing to enforce federal immigration law and abusing the public trust, did not rise to the level of high crimes and misdemeanors and were therefore unconstitutional.
“The charges against Secretary Mayorkas do not meet the high standard of high crimes and misdemeanors,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said on the Senate floor before a series of votes. “Confirming this egregious abuse by the House would be a grave mistake and could set a dangerous precedent for the future.”
The adjournment vote came after successful votes to reject two House-passed articles of impeachment against Mayorkas, as well as a series of Republican motions to delay the impeachment trial or start a closed session, all of which failed.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska was the only senator to break party lines during the afternoon series of votes. She voted for the “presence” of the motion to withdraw the first article of impeachment.
Senators were sworn in as jurors Wednesday after House impeachment managers introduced two articles of impeachment a day earlier, kicking off proceedings. Republicans in the House of Representatives voted for impeachment Mayorkas for the second time to tryin February.
Republicans do he demanded a trialwhile Senate Democrats have indicated they plan to dismiss the articles or take the case to trial because they believe the charges against Mayorkas do not meet the constitutional threshold for impeachment, which is a “high level of high crimes and misdemeanors.”
“Confirming this egregious abuse by the House would be a grave mistake and could set a dangerous precedent for the future,” said Schumer, a New York Democrat.
Republicans erupt in trial
After the vote, Republicans sharply criticized Democrats, arguing that the decision to avoid a trial set a precedent.
“They set a new precedent by saying you don’t even have to vote on the (impeachment) articles,” Republican Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri told reporters from the Senate floor.
Missouri Republican Eric Schmitt warned that voters will remember the Senate’s decision in the November election.
“They see what a disaster the border was,” he told reporters.
Congressional Democrats and the White House have criticized Republican efforts to impeach Mayorka as political fodder and campaign fodder for the November election. Republicans in Congress and the Biden administration have been clashing over immigration policy for years.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell argued Wednesday that it is senators’ constitutional duty to hold the trial.
“The task of this body is to consider the articles of impeachment presented to us and render a verdict,” the Kentucky Republican said on the Senate floor.
Even if a hearing were held, it is unlikely to achieve the two-thirds majority in the Senate required to remove Mayorkas.
In an email, a spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security said House Republicans had failed to provide the necessary evidence to justify an impeachment effort.
“Secretary Mayorkas spent months helping a bipartisan group of senators craft hard but fair legislation that would give DHS the tools it needs to meet today’s border security challenges, but the same House Republicans playing political games with this impeachment have chosen to block this bipartisan compromise,” he added. – said the spokesman.
“Congressional Republicans should stop wasting time on baseless attacks and instead do their job by passing bipartisan legislation to adequately fund the Department’s critical national security missions and finally fix our broken immigration system.”
With impeachment proceedings in the Senate, Mayorkas is making the rounds on Capitol Hill to defend the president’s fiscal year 2025 budget for the Department of Homeland Security.
White House spokesman for OveRsight and investigation Ian Sams praised the Senate’s decision in a statement.
“Once and for all, the Senate haS I rightly rejected this baseless accusation, which even conservative lawyers found unconstitutional,” he said.
Several votes
Democratic Washington state Sen. Patty Murray presided over the impeachment proceedings, which included several votes Wednesday afternoon.
Schumer tried to unanimously approve a trial structure that included debate time and the number of points of order senators could present, but Schmitt objected.
“I will not help Senator Schumer set fire to our Constitution,” he said.
Schumer then raised a point of order, stating that the first article of impeachment did not constitute a sedate crime under the Constitution, which led to a number of Republican senators requesting a vote on proposals to delay the vote on Schumer’s motion
Sen. Ted Cruz, a Republican from Texas, decided to go into closed session and discuss the articles of impeachment, but Schumer objected. GOP Sen. Mike Lee of Utah made the same motion. Senators voted on both proposals and rejected them by a vote of 49 to 51.
Senator John Kennedy, a Republican from Louisiana, moved to postpone the impeachment hearing and begin impeachment proceedings on April 30 at noon.
Kennedy’s motion failed 49-51.
GOP Sen. Rick Scott of Florida made the same adjournment motion, which was also defeated 49-51.
They returned to Schumer’s conclusion that the first article of impeachment was unconstitutional. The Senate voted 51-48 to reject the first article of impeachment on the grounds that it did not meet constitutional standards for impeachment, with Murkowski present.
Schumer presented an identical position on the second article of impeachment.
Kennedy again moved to postpone the impeachment proceedings until May 1, 2004. He revised his request to 2024. Again, it failed 49-51.
GOP Sen. Roger Marshall of Kansas then filed a motion to delay the election until Nov. 6, until after the election and “before this body violates the Constitution.” It failed 49-51.
Sen. John Thune of South Dakota, the No. 2 Republican, introduced Schumer’s second agenda item, stating that the second article of impeachment was unconstitutional. It failed 49-51.
Senators then approved Schumer’s second motion, 51-49.
Home action
Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene is spearheading the impeachment effort against Mayorkas, first introducing the measure in September.
Greene also serves as the House impeachment manager along with GOP Reps. Mark Green of Tennessee, Michael McCaul of Texas, Andy Biggs of Arizona, Ben Cline of Virginia, Andrew Garbarino of New York, Michael Guest of Mississippi, Harriet Hageman of Wyoming, Clay Higgins of Louisiana, Laurel Lee of Florida and August Pfluger of Texas.
The two impeachment managers, Biggs and Higgins, came to the Senate on Wednesday to watch the chamber’s proceedings.
The two articles of impeachment accused Mayorkas of failing to comply with federal immigration law and violating the public trust.
The first article of impeachment accused Mayorkas of contributing to a myriad of problems, including soaring profits from smuggling operations, a gigantic backlog of asylum cases in immigration courts, fentanyl-related deaths and migrant children working in hazardous jobs. Republican state legislatures moved to roll back child labor laws in industries from food to roofing.
Republicans argued that the first article of impeachment would hold Mayorka responsible for the gigantic number of migrants who went to the southern border to seek asylum. The Biden administration is dealing with the so-called the highest number of migrant encounters on the US-Mexico border in 20 years.
The second article of impeachment accuses Mayorkas of violating the public trust by making several statements in congressional testimony that Republicans say are false, such as Mayorkas telling lawmakers that the southern border is “secure.”
The second article also accused Mayorkas of failing to fulfill his statutory duty by rolling back Trump-era policies such as terminating contracts that would have meant continued border wall construction and the expiration of the Migrant Protection Protocols, also known as the “Remain in Mexico” policy, which was completed after it was referred to the Supreme Court.
