The House on Tuesday delivered to the Senate two articles of impeachment against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, officially kicking off what Democrats vow will be a swift and incomplete trial.
The charges come against the backdrop of historically high illegal-migrant crossings at the southern border, including 137,000 who were apprehended by U.S. officials in March.
The two articles, passed by the House in February, made Mr. Mayorkas the first sitting Cabinet member in U.S. history to be impeached. They charge him with willfully subverting immigration-enforcement laws and breaching the public trust by lying to Congress and the public about the border and efforts to control it.
The articles were repeatedly delayed by House Republicans, originally because of government funding priorities to avoid shutdowns and more recently to increase political pressure on Democrats against quashing them without a full trial.
The articles were read aloud on the Senate floor by lead impeachment manager Rep. Mark Green, Tennessee Republican and chair of the House Homeland Security Committee. Senators will be sworn in as jurors to start the trial at 1 p.m. Wednesday.
Just hours before the delivery of the articles, Mr. Mayorkas testified on Capitol Hill to the House Homeland Security Committee about President Biden’s fiscal 2025 budget request. He insisted that he and the president lack the authority to stem the stream of illegal immigrants, a claim that Republicans have vehemently rebutted, citing the term of former President Trump.
“Our immigration system is fundamentally broken,” Mr. Mayorkas said. “Only Congress can fix it.”
Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer could move to kill the articles — either by tabling or dismissing them — as early as Wednesday with a simple majority vote.
Several senators said they expect there to be several hours of debate before Democrats vote to effectively dismiss the articles.
Sen. Mitt Romney, Utah Republican, has repeatedly suggested he’ll side with Democrats so long as there’s a “more complete and fulsome” debate process.
“The outcome of my vote would depend upon the quality and convincing nature of the presentation,” Mr. Romney, who is retiring from Congress at the end of his term in January, told The Washington Times. “It would have to be something which is more than just checking a box. It would have to be a legitimate discussion that would help me and others reach a conclusion consistent with the impartial justice oath that we’re going to take.”
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Kentucky Republican, warned that prematurely derailing the articles would set a dangerous precedent.
“It would be beneath the Senate‘s dignity to shrug off our clear responsibility and fail to give the charges we’ll hear today the thorough consideration they deserve,” Mr. McConnell said.
All but five GOP senators in 2021 sought to dismiss similarly the second impeachment of former President Donald Trump prior to a trial.
Much of daily Senate business operates on unanimous consent agreements between Republicans and Democrats, cooperation that conservative senators are threatening to withhold going forward as a form of protest to bog down the chamber with frequent procedural roll call votes.
“We should take this very seriously and hold the Senate accountable for not doing their job,” said Sen. Rick Scott, Florida Republican. “If we’re not going to go to trial, then everything is on the table. This is ridiculous.”
Mr. McConnell and Mr. Scott were among those who voted to dismiss Mr. Trump’s second impeachment.
Mr. Schumer downplayed the articles against Mr. Mayorkas as a “policy disagreement” between congressional Republicans and the Biden administration that is not worthy of the Senate‘s time.
“Impeachment should never be used to settle a policy disagreement,” the New York Democrat said. “Talk about awful precedents. This would set an awful precedent for Congress. Every time there’s a policy agreement in the House, they send it over here and tie the Senate in knots to do an impeachment trial? That’s absurd. That’s an abuse of the process. That is more chaos.”
The House impeachment managers include two panel chairmen — Mr. Green of Tennessee and Foreign Affairs’ Michael McCaul of Texas.
The other “managers,” who basically play the role of prosecutors in a conventional criminal case, are Reps. 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 Pfluger of Texas and Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia.
All the lawmakers are Republicans; no House Democrats voted to impeach Mr. Mayorkas.
• Ramsey Touchberry can be reached at rtouchberry@washingtontimes.com.
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