Washington — The Senate is convening for the impeachment trial of Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Wednesday afternoon, with the Democratic-led upper chamber obliged to take on the House GOP-backed impeachment effort.
Senators are being sworn in as jurors, tasked with determining whether Mayorkas should be convicted on the impeachment charges and removed from office. He is all but certain to be acquitted, given Democrats’ control of the chamber. Just how long the trial will last remains to be seen, but Democrats are hoping to bring it to a swift end.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, announced that the upper chamber would convene in accordance with impeachment rules shortly after House Republican impeachment managers transmitted the articles of impeachment to the Senate on Tuesday. Sen. Patty Murray, a Washington Democrat and the president pro tempore of the chamber, is presiding over the trial.
The House voted to impeach Mayorkas in February, and the Senate’s rules dictate that the upper chamber is compelled to convene as a court of impeachment after the articles have been delivered by the House impeachment managers. Tuesday’s transmission came after months of delay and kickstarted the trial process in the Senate.
But once senators are sworn in, the 51-member Democratic majority, which includes three independents, will likely be able to move to quickly dismiss or delay the trial not long after it gets underway — if Democrats can remain united.
Meanwhile, Senate Republicans have encouraged Schumer to hold a comprehensive trial. Last week, all but six members of the conference signed on to a letter demanding that the Senate “properly adjudicate” the House’s impeachment effort.
Some of those Senate Republicans were expected to employ procedural maneuvers to slow the process down on Wednesday, unless they reached an agreement with Democratic leadership to allow for limited time for discussion on the Senate floor.
Schumer said on Wednesday morning that senators would seek an agreement for a period of debate time to “accommodate the wishes” of GOP colleagues, allowing them to offer a vote on trial resolutions and allow for points of order before moving to dismiss. He said the matter was “the least legitimate, least substantive and most politicized impeachment trial ever in the history of the United States.”
“If our House Republicans want to have a debate about the border, Democrats are glad to have it,” Schumer said. “But instead of wasting time on impeachment, we should debate bipartisan legislation to secure our border once and for all.”
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The articles of impeachment
House Republicans in January released two articles of impeachment against Mayorkas, accusing him of “willful and systemic refusal to comply with the law” and a “breach of public trust.” After an initial attempt failed, the House voted narrowly in February to impeach the secretary under the articles, with three Republicans and all Democrats opposing.
In the first article, House Republicans argue that Mayorkas has “repeatedly violated laws enacted by Congress regarding immigration and border security.” It accuses Mayorkas of overstepping his authority and disregarding federal laws by releasing many asylum seekers into the U.S. and allowing more than 1 million to enter under an authority known as parole.
The House Republicans accuse Mayorkas in the second article of “knowingly making false statements to Congress and the American people and avoiding lawful oversight in order to obscure the devastating consequences of his willful and systemic refusal to comply with the law and carry out his statutory duties.”
DHS has denounced the effort, calling it “baseless,” while saying that House Republicans “continue to ignore the facts and undermine the Constitution.”
“Congressional Republicans should stop wasting time with unfounded 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,” a DHS spokesperson said in a statement.
Under the Constitution, the basis for impeachment is “high Crimes and Misdemeanors.” Constitutional scholars argue that the allegations against Mayorkas do not rise to that level.
Alan He contributed reporting.
