Washington- House Republicans are set to introduce the articles of impeachment against the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security Alexander Mayorkas in the Senate on Tuesday, kicking off a showdown over an impeachment trial that has been brewing for months.
Months after the lower house voted to impeach the Cabinet secretary, House impeachment managers will transmit the articles to the Senate in a ceremonial process that will trigger the start of the Senate’s role in the matter .
The upper house is required by Senate rules to convene as a court of impeachment after the articles are transmitted. Although the House voted to impeach Mayorkas in February in a historic vote that marked the first time a Cabinet secretary had been impeached in nearly 150 years, House leaders chose to wait the end of a fight for government funding to bring the issue to the Senate. And even though they intended to begin the process last week, Senate Republicans pushed to delay the procedure until this week due to concerns about attendance.
But even after the Republican Party’s efforts to delay the submission of the articles, it has not been determined how long the trial will last in the Democratic-controlled Senate, where the effort is widely seen as a political stunt.
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The impeachment campaign in the House
Many Republicans in Congress want to punish Mayorkas for the Biden administration’s handling of the U.S.-Mexico border, saying the secretary of state failed to enforce the country’s laws and prevent tens of thousands from migrants to cross the border.
DHS denounced the efforts as “baseless,” saying House Republicans “continue to ignore the facts and undermine the Constitution” with their impeachment campaign.
“Republicans in Congress should stop wasting time with baseless attacks and instead do their job by passing bipartisan legislation to properly fund the Department’s vital national security missions and finally fix our broken immigration system,” said one DHS spokesperson in a statement.
In January, House Republicans issued two articles of impeachment accusing Mayorkas of “willful and systemic failure to comply with the law” and “breach of public trust.” In February, after an initial attempt failed, the House narrowly voted to impeach Mayorkas under the articles, with three Republicans and all Democrats opposed.
The first article describes how House Republicans claim Mayorkas “has repeatedly violated laws passed by Congress regarding immigration and border security.” By releasing many asylum seekers into the United States and allowing more than a million of them to enter under an authority known as parole, the resolution accused Mayorkas of overstepping his authority and failing to comply with federal laws.
The second article of impeachment accuses Mayorkas of “knowingly making false statements to Congress and the American people and evading lawful oversight in order to obscure the devastating consequences of his deliberate and systemic refusal to comply with the law and to exercise its statutory functions.
Yet constitutional scholars say the allegations against Mayorkas do not constitute impeachable offenses. Under the Constitution, the basis for indictment is “high crimes and misdemeanors.” And although enough House Republicans have supported the impeachment effort in the Lower House, it is almost certain that the effort will fail in the Senate.
The role of the Senate in impeachments
Under the Constitution, the House has the “sole power” of impeachment, while the Senate has the power to hold a trial. Impeachment is only the first step toward removing an official from office, followed by a trial in the Senate, which could result in their removal from office. But how that trial plays out will largely depend on the Democratic majority in the Senate.
Once the House transmits the articles of impeachment to the upper chamber, the upper chamber must schedule a trial for the start of the next legislative day, according to Senate rules. Once the Senate meets, the majority makes the decision. With 51 seats controlled by Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents, the majority can speed up, delay or outright reject impeachment proceedings.
House impeachment managers are expected to present the articles of impeachment to the Senate on Tuesday and senators are expected to be sworn in as jurors the next day. Sen. Patty Murray, Democrat of Washington and president pro tempore of the Senate, will preside.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said after the GOP delay last week that “our plan here hasn’t changed — the Senate is ready to be in session when the House is.”
“We want to resolve this issue as quickly as possible,” Schumer said. “Impeachment should never be used to settle political disagreements, it sets a terrible precedent.”
Johnson and the 11 impeachment managers wrote a letter to Schumer last month saying they would present the articles of impeachment to the upper house on April 10 and urging the Senate leader to schedule a trial “within shortest time possible”. Among the impeachment managers are GOP representatives. 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, August Pfluger of Texas and Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia.
“If he cares about the Constitution and ending the devastation caused by Biden’s border disaster, Senator Schumer will quickly schedule a full public trial and hear the arguments made by our impeachment managers,” Johnson said in a statement.
Nikole Killion contributed reporting.
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