U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas affirms before the House Homeland Security Committee about the Biden Administration’s FY2025 budget plan demand in the Cannon House Office Building on Capitol Hill on April 16, 2024 in Washington, DC.
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WASHINGTON (AP)– The Senate has actually dismissed all impeachment charges versus Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, ending the House Republican push to eliminate the Cabinet secretary from workplace over his handling of the the U.S.-Mexico border and ending his trial before arguments even started.
Senators voted to dismiss both short articles of impeachment and end the trial, with Democrats arguing that the short articles were unconstitutional. The very first short article charged Mayorkas with “willful and systemic refusal to comply” with migration law. The 2nd short article charged Mayorkas with a “breach of trust” for stating the border was safe. The votes were 51-48 and 51-49, both along celebration lines.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer stated the House Republicans’ case stopped working to fulfill “the high standard of high crimes and misdemeanors” and might set an unsafe precedent.
“For the sake of the Senate’s integrity and to protect impeachment for those rare cases we truly need it, senators should dismiss today’s charges,” stated Schumer, D-N.Y., as he opened Wednesday’s session.
Senate Republicans had actually argued for a complete impeachment trial after the House directly voted in February to impeach Mayorkas for his handling of the border, arguing in the 2 short articles that he “willfully and systematically” declined to implement migration laws. The House vote was the very first time in almost 150 years that a Cabinet secretary was impeached.
An straight-out termination of House Republicans’ prosecution of Mayorkas, without any opportunity to argue the case, is a humiliating defeat for House Republicans and embattled House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La, who made the impeachment a top priority. And it is most likely to resonate politically for both Republicans and Democrats in a governmental election year when border security has actually been a leading problem.
Republicans argue that President Joe Biden has actually been weak on the border as arrests for unlawful crossings increased to more than 2 million individuals throughout the last 2 years of his term, though they have actually fallen from a record-high of 250,000 in December amidst increased enforcement inMexico Democrats state that rather of impeaching Mayorkas, Republicans ought to have accepted a bipartisan Senate compromise focused on decreasing the variety of migrants who enter the U.S. unlawfully.
House Sergeant at Arms William McFarland, left, and Acting Clerk of the House Kevin F. McCumber, and impeachment supervisorsReps Mark Green, R-Tenn, Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga, Michael McCaul, R-Texas, Clay Higgins, R-La, Ben Cline, R-Va, Andy Biggs, R-Ariz, Michael Guest, R-Miss, Laurel Lee, R-Fla, Harriet Hageman, R-Wyo, and Andrew Garbarino, R-N.Y., and August Pfluger, R-Texas, stroll through the Capitol Rotunda to the Senate to provide short articles of impeachment versus Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, on Tuesday, April 16, 2024.
Tom Williams|CQ-Roll Call, Inc.|Getty Images
House impeachment supervisors provided the charges to the Senate on Tuesday, standing in the well of the Senate and reading them aloud to a captive audience of senators. But they did not get an opportunity to provide the case before the Senate dismissed it.
Once the senators were sworn in on Wednesday, the chamber became the court of impeachment, with DemocraticSen Patty Murray of Washington administering. Murray is the president professional tempore of the Senate, or the senior-most member of the bulk celebration who beings in for the vice president. Senators approached the front of the Senate in groups of 4 to sign an oath book that is saved in the National Archives.
Schumer then required the votes to dismiss the trial after Republicans declined a proposed contract for Senate dispute time and numerous votes on GOP objections. MissouriSen Eric Schmitt stated Democrats were “bulldozing 200 years of precedent” on impeachments by attempting to dismiss the trial.
Angry Republicans required numerous votes to postpone the inescapable last result, however none passed as all Democrats and 3 Independents held together.
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky, stated “history will not judge this moment well.”
“This process must not be abused,” McConnell stated. “It must not be short-circuited.”
Still, Republicans likewise transferred to dismiss previous President Donald Trump’s 2nd impeachment trial in 2021, weeks after theJan 6, 2021, attack on theCapitol All however 5 GOP senators– consisting of McConnell– voted to end the trial, arguing it was unconstitutional due to the fact that Trump had actually currently left workplace.
As Johnson signed the short articles Monday in preparation for sending them throughout the Capitol, he stated Schumer ought to assemble a trial to “hold those who engineered this crisis to full account.”
Schumer “is the only impediment to delivering accountability for the American people,” Johnson stated. “Pursuant to the Constitution, the House demands a trial.”
Even if the Senate held a trial, Republicans would not have the ability to win the assistance of the two-thirds of the Senate that is required to found guilty and eliminate Mayorkas from workplace– Democrats manage the Senate, 51-49, and they seem unified versus the impeachment effort. Not one House Democrat supported it, either.
Mayorkas, who remained in New York on Wednesday to release a project for kids’s online security, restated that he’s concentrated on the work of his department. “The Senate is going to do what the Senate considers to be appropriate as that proceeds,” he stated. “I am here in New York City on Wednesday morning fighting online sexual exploitation and abuse. I’m focused on our mission.”
Johnson postponed sending out the short articles to the Senate for weeks while both chambers completed deal with federal government financing legislation and took a two-week recess. Johnson had actually stated he would send them to the Senate recently, however he punted once again after Senate Republicans stated they desired more time to prepare.
At a hearing with Mayorkas on Tuesday about President Joe Biden’s budget plan ask for the department, a few of the House impeachment supervisors previewed the arguments they would have made.
TennesseeRep Mark Green, the chairman of the House Homeland Security panel, informed the secretary that he has a responsibility under the law to manage and safeguard U.S. borders, and “during your three years as secretary, you have failed to fulfill this oath. You have refused to comply with the laws passed by Congress, and you have breached the public trust.”
Mayorkas safeguarded the department’s efforts however stated the country’s migration system is “fundamentally broken, and only Congress can fix it.”
The impeachment trial is the 3rd in 5 years. Democrats impeached President Donald Trump two times, twice his negotiations with Ukraine and the 2nd time in the days after the Capitol attack. Trump was acquitted by the Senate both times.
If the Senate had actually transferred to a trial on Mayorkas, senators would have been required to being in their seats throughout, perhaps weeks, while the House impeachment supervisors and attorneys representing Mayorkas made their cases.
