Mayorkas impeachment charges headed to Senate
WASHINGTON — House Speaker Mike Johnson sent impeachment charges against Alejandro Mayorkas to the Senate on Tuesday, forcing senators to convene a trial on the allegations that the Homeland Security secretary has “willfully and systematically” refused to enforce existing immigration laws. But the proceedings may not last long.
While the Senate is obligated to convene a trial under the rules of impeachment once the charges are walked across the Capitol, Democrats are expected to try to dismiss or table the charges before the arguments get underway.
Majority Democrats have said the GOP case against Mayorkas doesn’t rise to the “high crimes and misdemeanors” laid out as a bar for impeachment in the Constitution, and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., likely has enough votes to end the trial immediately if he decides to. The proceedings could begin today.
Opening the Senate for the week, Schumer said he wants to “address this issue as expeditiously as possible.”
“Impeachment should never be used to settle a policy disagreement,” Schumer said. “That would set a horrible precedent for the Congress.”
Senators will be sworn in today as jurors, turning the chamber into the court of impeachment. The Senate will then issue a summons to Mayorkas to inform him of the charges and ask for a written answer. He will not have to appear in the Senate at any point.
What happens after that is unclear. Impeachment rules generally allow the Senate to decide how to proceed.
Republicans have argued there should be a full trial. As Johnson
signed the articles Monday in preparation for sending them across the Capitol, he said Schumer should hold a trial to “hold those who engineered this crisis to full account.”
“Senator Schumer is the only impediment to delivering accountability for the American people,” Johnson said. “Pursuant to the Constitution, the House demands a trial.”
The House narrowly voted in February to impeach Mayorkas for his handling of the border. House Republicans charged in two articles of impeachment that Mayorkas has not only refused to enforce existing law but also breached the public trust by lying to Congress and saying the border was secure. It was the first time in nearly 150 years a Cabinet secretary was impeached.
Since then, Johnson has delayed sending the articles to the Senate for weeks while both chambers finished work on government funding legislation and took a two-week recess. Johnson had said he would send them to the Senate last week, but punted again after Senate Republicans said they wanted more time to prepare.
South Dakota Sen. John Thune, the Senate’s No. 2 Republican, has said the Senate needs to hold a full trial where it can examine the evidence against Mayorkas and come to a final conclusion.
“This is an absolute debacle at the southern border,” Thune said. “It is a national security crisis. There needs to be accountability.”
Schumer could call a vote to table the charges and end the trial as soon as today. Before a vote to dismiss, though, a group of House managers — members who act as prosecutors and are appointed by the speaker — will walk the articles across the Capitol and deliver the impeachment charges to be read on the Senate floor.
The impeachment managers previewed some of their arguments at a hearing with Mayorkas Tuesday morning on President Joe Biden’s budget request for the department.
House Homeland Security Chairman Mark Green, a Tennessee Republican who is one of the managers, told the secretary that he has a duty under the law to control and guard U.S. borders, and “during your three years as secretary, you have failed to fulfill this oath. You have refused to comply with the laws passed by Congress and you have breached the public trust.”
Mayorkas defended the department’s efforts but said the nation’s immigration system is “fundamentally broken, and only Congress can fix it.”
Other impeachment managers are 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, August Plfuger of Texas and Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia.
After the jurors are sworn in, Senate Republicans are likely to try to raise a series of objections if Schumer calls a vote to dismiss or table, an effort to both protest and delay the move. But ultimately they cannot block a dismissal if majority Democrats have the votes.
While most Republicans oppose quick dismissal, some have hinted they could vote with Democrats.
Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, said last week he wasn’t sure what he would do if there were a move to dismiss the trial. “I think it’s virtually certain that there will not be the conviction of someone when the constitutional test has not been met,” he said.
At the same time, Romney said he wants to at least express his view that “Mayorkas has done a terrible job, but he’s following the direction of the president and has not met the constitutional test of a high crime or misdemeanor.”