Watch Live: Senate convenes for Mayorkas impeachment trial as Democrats eye quick conclusion

Washington- The Senate meets to impeachment trial from Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Wednesday afternoon, with the Democratic-led Upper House forced to take up the GOP-backed impeachment effort.

Senators are sworn in as jurors, charged with determining whether Mayorkas should be convicted of the impeachment charges and removed from office. He is almost certain to be acquitted, given Democrats’ control of the chamber. It remains to be seen how long the trial will last, but Democrats hope to end it quickly.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, announced that the upper chamber would reconvene under impeachment rules shortly after the House Republican managers were indicted. transmitted the articles of indictment in the Senate on Tuesday. Sen. Patty Murray, a Washington Democrat and speaker pro tempore of the House, is presiding over the trial.

The House voted to impeach Mayorkas in February, and Senate rules say the upper chamber is required to convene as a court of impeachment after the articles are handed down by impeachment managers. in impeachment of the House. Tuesday’s transmission came after months of delay and restarted the Senate trial process.

But once senators are sworn in, the 51-member Democratic majority, including three independents, will likely be able to quickly dismiss or delay the trial soon after it begins — if Democrats can stay united.

Meanwhile, Senate Republicans encouraged Schumer to hold a thorough trial. Last week, all but six members of the conference signed a letter demanding that the Senate “properly rule” on the House’s impeachment efforts.

Some of those Senate Republicans are expected to resort to procedural maneuvers to slow the process Wednesday unless they reach an agreement with Democratic leaders to allow limited time for discussions in the Senate.

Schumer said Wednesday morning that senators would seek agreement on a debate period to “accommodate the wishes” of GOP colleagues, allowing them to offer a vote on trial resolutions and allow points of order before proceed with the rejection. He said it was the least legitimate, least substantive and most politicized impeachment trial ever in U.S. history.

“If Republicans in our House want to have a debate on the border, Democrats are happy to have it,” Schumer said. “But instead of wasting time on impeachment, we should be debating bipartisan legislation to secure our border once and for all.”

Articles of Impeachment

House Republicans in January issued two articles of impeachment against Mayorkas, accusing him of “willful and systemic failure to comply with the law” and “breach of public trust.” After an initial attempt failed, the House narrowly voted in February to impeach the secretary under the articles, with three Republicans and all Democrats opposed.

In the first article, House Republicans claim Mayorkas has “repeatedly violated laws passed by Congress regarding immigration and border security.” It accuses Mayorkas of exceeding his authority and ignoring federal laws by releasing numerous asylum seekers into the United States and allowing more than a million of them to enter under an authority known as of conditional release.

House Republicans accuse Mayorkas in the second article of “knowingly making false statements to Congress and the American people and avoiding legal 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”. “

DHS denounced the effort as “baseless” while asserting that House Republicans “continue to ignore the facts and undermine the Constitution.”

“Republicans in Congress should stop wasting time on 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.

Under the Constitution, the basis for indictment is “high crimes and misdemeanors.” Constitutionalists argue that the allegations against Mayorkas do not rise to that level.

Alan He contributed reporting.