Sinema, Kelly snub impeachment case

Attempt to remove Mayorkas denounced as ‘purely a political stunt’

The U.S. Senate dismissed the impeachment charges against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas without holding a trial in a pair of partisan votes on Wednesday.

Democrats and independents — including both of Arizona’s senators — opted against considering the case over Mayorkas’ stewardship of the southern border brought by House Republicans, saying it fell short of the constitutional bar of high crimes or misdemeanors.

The Senate voted 51-48 and 51-49 to drop the two charges against Mayorkas.

It was a historic end to a historic case that lacked any real drama from the outset.

Coming months after the collapse of a bipartisan border security bill, it leaves both parties and their presidential contenders on a path of debating new steps on the issue without taking significant ones.

Before the votes Wednesday, Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., told CNN he stood with his Democratic colleagues in the view that the case was nakedly political.

“What we saw … was purely a political stunt. Arizona needs real solutions at the border, not more politics,” he said. “There were no high crimes or misdemeanors.

“There was no corruption. There was no bribery. It was just a political exercise.”

For Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, I-Ariz., who played a leading role in the border security measure that similarly ended without serious consideration, the impeachment case stood as another example of politics over policy.

“Arizona’s border is in crisis — and politicians in Washington continue to use the border crisis for their political gain,” she said in a statement.

“I provided a solution to the border crisis, but partisans in Washington decided not to secure the border. Arizona deserves better.”

The Republican case against Mayorkas essentially hinged on the decision in the Biden administration to release those charged with entering the country illegally rather than require them to remain along the border until their case is heard.

The GOP also said Mayorkas falsely declared the U.S. maintains operational control of the border.

To Democrats, the case improperly brought constitutional remedies to policy differences.

The House of Representatives, in a 214-213 party-line vote in the Republican-controlled chamber, voted in February to impeach Mayorkas on its second attempt to do so.

Their initial effort failed due to Republican absences at a time when they hold the House with the barest of majorities.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., led the move to dismiss the case on Wednesday.

“To validate this gross abuse by the House would be a grave mistake and could set a dangerous precedent for the future,” he said.

Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., who was one of the House managers in the Mayorkas case, cast the Senate’s decision in stark terms.

“Unsurprisingly, Senate Democrats unanimously voted to dismiss the impeachment charges against Alejandro Mayorkas,” he wrote in a social media post.

“They refused to even hold a trial. Democrats have American blood on their hands.”

The impeachment case’s instant implosion came after Sinema’s border security bill received scant consideration as well and highlighted a policy divide that is unlikely to change before the November elections.

Led by opposition from former President Donald Trump, Senate Republicans sank the border security bill without debate and as House Republicans made clear it had no support in that chamber.

Sinema’s $118 billion bill would have included a new border shutdown authority and made asylum claims more difficult to sustain and would have processed them more quickly.

The bill did little to address immigration policies more broadly and included substantial military aid to Ukraine and Israel for their ongoing wars, as well as funds for Taiwan, which is seeing heightened tensions with mainland China.

Mayorkas was only the second Cabinet member in history to face impeachment and the first to do so as a sitting member in that position.