House Republicans delivered articles of impeachment against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to the Senate on Tuesday, setting up a trial over the cabinet secretary’s complicity in the record surge in illegal immigration that emerged under President Biden.
A group of GOP impeachment managers walked over to the Senate Tuesday afternoon to officially deliver the articles and initiate an impeachment trial as Democrats seek to expedite the process or dismiss the charges altogether. Senators will be sworn-in as jurors on Wednesday to begin trial proceedings.
“The border catastrophe is the number one issue for the American people. We must hold those who engineered it to full account,” House Speaker Mike Johnson (R., La.) said Monday upon signing the articles of impeachment. “Sen. Schumer, hold a public trial.”
House Republicans narrowly voted to impeach Mayorkas in February on their second attempt after initially failing to so do. Mayorkas became the first cabinet secretary in nearly 150 years to be impeached after overseeing the Biden administration’s policy of allowing record numbers of illegal immigrants to cross the Southern border.
The first article of impeachment against Mayorkas accuses him of knowingly releasing illegal immigrants into the U.S. instead of detaining them, and the second article alleges he lied during congressional testimony and obstructed congressional oversight.
The vast majority of Americans are dissatisfied with how Biden is handling immigration and a trial against Mayorkas could bring further scrutiny to vulnerable Democratic senators seeking to distance themselves from the party’s immigration stance.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) stated his commitment on Tuesday to quickly sorting out the impeachment trial and accused Republicans of abusing the impeachment process.
“As I have said repeatedly, we want to address this issue as expeditiously as possible. Impeachment should never be used to settle a policy disagreement,” Schumer said on the senate floor. It’s unclear exactly how the Democratic-run senate will move to address the Mayorkas trial.
“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,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) said Tuesday morning. “I’ll strenuously oppose any effort to table the articles of impeachment and avoid looking at the Biden administration’s border crisis squarely in the face”
Earlier in the day, Republican lawmakers grilled Mayorkas when he testified before the House Homeland Security Committee on the Department of Homeland Security’s fiscal year 2025 budget request.
“The open border is the number one issue across America in poll after poll and that is exactly why this committee impeached you,” Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (R., Ga.) remarked.
Mayorkas failed to explain why Immigration and Customs Enforcement paroled the illegal Venezuelan migrant accused of brutally killing Georgia nursing student Laken Riley and disfiguring her skull. Riley’s death intensified the outrage against the Biden administration’s handling of the Southern border.