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Johnson initially delayed the delivery of the articles to focus on funding legislation to avert a government shutdown. Then the transmission was delayed again after Senate Republicans asked for more time to strategize ways to ensure a Senate trial. Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, said last week he wasn't sure what he would do if there were a move to dismiss the trial. “I think it’s virtually certain that there will not be the conviction of someone when the constitutional test has not been met,” he said. Under the Constitution, the House has the "sole Power" of impeachment, while the Senate has the authority to hold a trial.
House sends Mayorkas impeachment articles to Senate as clash over trial looms
But Republicans have pushed ahead with the articles, which accuse the secretary of willfully refusing to enforce border laws and breaching the public trust. It was almost 150 years ago when the House voted unanimously to impeach Belknap on five articles of impeachment that he had criminally disregarded his Cabinet duties and used his office for private gain. After a trial in the Senate, a majority of senators vote to convict him but they didn’t have enough votes to hit the the necessary two-thirds majority and Belknap was acquitted. WASHINGTON -- The House sent two articles of impeachment against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to the Senate on Tuesday, forcing a trial on allegations that he has “willfully and systematically” refused to enforce immigration laws. WASHINGTON (AP) — The House sent two articles of impeachment against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to the Senate on Tuesday, forcing a trial on allegations that he has “willfully and systematically” refused to enforce immigration laws.
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House Republicans who have long been itching to impeach Mayorkas have been trying to keep the pressure on their leadership, holding a news conference last month and urging McCarthy to more explicitly spell out where he stands on the issue before they voted him speaker. Meanwhile, key committee chairs are vowing to hold hearings on the crisis at the southern border and prepping plans to haul in officials for interviews. GOP Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, who leads the powerful House Judiciary Committee where impeachment articles would originate, suggested the issue would be one of the first hearings when his panel gets up and running. Mayorkas has already testified in front of Congress numerous times since he assumed his post, and his agency says he is fully prepared to continue complying with oversight in the GOP-led House. So far, there have been no formal requests for hearings or testimony, with congressional committees still working to get off the ground, though Republicans last year sent numerous letters and preservation requests telegraphing their plans for the majority.
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“If anybody is a prime candidate for impeachment in this town, it’s Mayorkas,” Rep. James Comer, chairman of the House Oversight Committee, told CNN. "We don't want this to come over on the eve of the moment when members might be operating under the influence of jet-fume intoxication," Lee added at a news conference, saying it's better for the Senate to take up the issue at the beginning of the week. House Republicans have been eager to impeach Mayorkas since seizing majority control last year, particularly as their efforts to impeach Biden over the business dealings of his son Hunter Biden have come to a standstill. But the panel’s top Democrat, Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, who has repeatedly insisted policy differences with President Joe Biden are not grounds for impeachment, was backed up by one of the witnesses, Princeton University law professor Deborah Pearlstein. The outright dismissal of the charges, without the opportunity to argue their case, was yet another setback for House Republicans, plagued by internal drama and a vanishingly thin majority.
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WASHINGTON — After a weeklong delay, the House of Representatives on Tuesday afternoon sent its articles of impeachment against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to the Senate. House Republicans in the second article accuse Mayorkas of lying to Congress and obstructing congressional oversight, claiming he lied when he said the border was "secure" and that DHS had "operational control." "Legal disputes over the exercises of executive authority are a commonplace in every administration," University of Missouri School of Law professor Frank Bowman told the House Homeland Security Committee at an impeachment hearing earlier this month. "And every president wins some and loses others. If the mere existence of such disputes were impeachable, every president and every Cabinet officer would be impeachable many times over."
"If Secretary Mayorkas does not resign, House Republicans will investigate every order, every action and every failure to determine whether we can begin an impeachment inquiry," McCarthy told reporters in El Paso, Texas. A DHS official reiterated that the secretary has no plans to resign and that they believe the impeachment articles have no factual grounds. "The Department will continue our work to enforce our laws and secure our border, while building a safe, orderly, and humane immigration system," Espinosa said. "Members of Congress can do better than point the finger at someone else; they should come to the table and work on solutions for our broken system and outdated laws, which they have not updated in over 40 years."
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Earlier in the Biden administration, some migrants were released into the country with notices to report to immigration enforcement officers — a practice that led to a lawsuit in Florida, referred to as part of this charge. The department eventually replaced the practice by paroling migrants into the country with some alternative to detention, such as an ankle bracelet or a phone to check in with the authorities. In recent months, the department has switched to another practice, of issuing notices to appear in court, instead of using parole authority.Republicans say these are all means of skirting statutory mandates to detain migrants, as well as negative court rulings.
The articles accused the Homeland Security head of “willfully and systematically” refusing to enforce immigration laws at the U.S.-Mexico border. Republicans also said he lied to Congress and broke the public’s trust by saying the border is secure. Even if the Senate had held a trial, Republicans would not have been able to win the support of the two-thirds of the Senate that is needed to convict and remove Mayorkas from office — Democrats control the Senate, 51-49, and they remained united against the impeachment effort. At a trial, senators would be forced to sit in their seats for the duration, maybe weeks, while the House impeachment managers and lawyers representing Mayorkas make their cases.
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He said the Republican charges were policy disputes, not high crimes, and it was important to set a precedent. House impeachment managers delivered the charges to the Senate on Tuesday, standing in the well of the Senate and reading them aloud to a captive audience. Republicans argue that President Joe Biden has been weak on the border as arrests for illegal crossings skyrocketed to more than 2 million people during the last two years of his term, though they have fallen from a record high of 250,000 in December amid heightened enforcement in Mexico. Democrats say that instead of impeaching Mayorkas, Republicans should have accepted a bipartisan Senate compromise aimed at reducing the number of migrants who come into the U.S. illegally.
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North Carolina Republican Rep. Dan Bishop, visibly agitated, chided Bier for advocating for open borders. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security cites pandemic-era health order to bar Venezuelans from legally applying for asylum. Rep. Jodey Arrington (R-Texas) likewise called for careful consideration of “responsibly utilized” impeachments. Still, several members of the House insisted the Senate’s swift dismissal has not diminished their appetite for impeachment. It’s an idea he floated ahead of the Senate proceedings on Mayorkas, and one skeptics say is a pathway for avoiding a tough vote in the House — though Comer said such a vote is still on the table.
"To ensure the Senate has adequate time to perform its constitutional duty, the House will transmit the articles of impeachment to the Senate next week," a spokesperson for Speaker Mike Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, said in a statement. Mayorkas has been deeply involved in Senate negotiations over the border security package, which would potentially restrict entry into the U.S. and more rapidly deport those people in the country without legal documentation. Biden told congressional leaders this week during a meeting at the White House he wanted a “big border security” bill as he tries to drive Congress to wrap up work on his $110 billion national security package for Ukraine, Israel and other needs, including the U.S.-Mexico border. Republican leadership has not yet commented on whether they'll take any further action on the resolution. Introducing articles of impeachment is the first step of what can be a lengthy process, including an investigation by the House Judiciary Committee, and does not mean Mayorkas will ultimately be impeached -- or formally accused -- by the House.
If only House Republicans could put this much time and effort into working across the aisle to address the real problems at the border. Senators dismissed a pair of impeachment articles Wednesday after less than three hours of procedural bickering, closing out the House GOP’s yearlong effort to oust Mayorkas with a whimper. Freshman Rep. Nick Langworthy, another New York Republican, is among the 26 co-sponsors who have signed on to Fallon’s impeachment articles so far. But there are some Republicans in Biden districts already lining up behind impeachment articles for Mayorkas, suggesting the politics could be moving in the GOP’s direction.
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