The Senate on Wednesday rejected an impeachment charge against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro N. Mayorkas, seeking to quash two charges of failing to enforce immigration laws and betraying the public’s trust before the trial begins. voted along party lines.
The Senate, by a vote of 51-48, with one senator voting “present,” ruled that the first charge was unconstitutional because it did not meet the constitutional criteria for a felony or misdemeanor. Republicans were united in opposition except for the only “incumbent” vote, Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, but Democrats voted unanimously in favor.
Ms. Murkowski joined her party in voting against the second trial’s dismissal on the same grounds. It was rejected along party lines by a vote of 51-49.
Sen. Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and majority leader, dismissed each charge, arguing that Cabinet members cannot be impeached and removed from office simply for carrying out the policies of the administration they serve. He made a move to do so.
“Justifying this egregious abuse by the House of Representatives is a grave mistake and could set a dangerous precedent for the future,” Schumer said.
It took only about three hours for the Senate to take up the matter.
Republicans warned that Democrats had set a dangerous precedent by skipping an impeachment trial altogether, arguing that this circumvented the Senate’s constitutional duties. They made several attempts to delay his removal, but failed in a series of partisan votes.
“Introducing articles of impeachment would be unprecedented in the history of the Senate. It would be a no-brainer,” said Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the minority leader.
Mr. McConnell, ahead of the Senate trial, has weighed in on Republicans’ unsuccessful 2021 effort to dismiss the second impeachment charge against former President Donald J. Trump over the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. He did not mention that he had voted in favor of the .
Republican senators were outraged by Schumer’s maneuver. Some accused him of undermining the institution of the Senate and the Constitution itself. Some, banging on desks, called for the trial to be postponed for two weeks until next month or after the November elections. They accused Mr. Mayorkas of lying to Congress and obstructing the Republican investigation.
Sen. Mike Lee of Utah was visibly irritated and ran around the chamber trying to strategize with his fellow Republicans.
“Mr. Mayorkas and Mr. Biden’s policies have led to the worst border crisis in American history,” said Sen. John Thune of South Dakota, the No. 2 Republican in the House.
Mayorkas becomes the first sitting Cabinet member in U.S. history to be impeached. Secretary of War William Belknap was impeached in 1876, but resigned minutes before the scheduled vote.
Unlike Belknap, Mayorkas has never been accused of corruption or crimes other than implementing immigration policies opposed by Republicans.
Democrats denounced Mayorkas’ impeachment as unfair and politicized. Legal experts have called the charges against him baseless and argued that the charges against him do not rise to the level of impeachable offenses. But Republicans essentially pushed for the policy to attack the secretary, arguing that President Biden’s immigration policies are fueling a wave of illegal immigration.
The vote came after Republicans spent much of the day slamming the chaos at the Mexican border and blaming the Biden administration for it. Under Biden, the number of people crossing the southern border has reached an all-time high. Republicans urged Mr. Schumer to hold a trial in which House impeachment managers could lay out their charges.
Failure to do so, McConnell said, “means running away from our fundamental responsibilities and from the plain truth of a record crisis at our southern border.”
On Wednesday, the Senate prepares to move into impeachment court, with senators required to take the oath in the chamber and sit at their desks to begin the process. But they spent much of the afternoon negotiating whether to hold the trial at all, and ultimately won with Democrats, who control the chamber, arguing to terminate the trial before it began.
After the first charge was dismissed, Mr. Lee took to the floor and angrily demanded, “If this isn’t a felony or a misdemeanor, what is?”
After the articles of impeachment were invalidated, Lee and his fellow Republican senators took turns laying out accusations against the Cabinet members, but they spoke to a nearly empty Senate chamber.
At a press conference after the vote, Schumer said he had no regrets about setting a precedent that impeachment charges could be dismissed without a trial. If a future secretary or president is impeached for policy disagreements, those charges should also be dismissed, he said.
“The dangerous precedent that Republicans are talking about is the precedent of allowing impeachment in lieu of policy disagreements,” Schumer said.
Mayorkas has continued his work for months, effectively ignoring the incident. He negotiated a border security deal with both Senate Republicans and Democrats, but the deal fell apart due to opposition from Trump.
Mayorkas spoke on Capitol Hill Tuesday about the department’s budget request, asking Congress to give the department more resources to enforce border laws, hire more staff and pass negotiated legislation. Ta.
“The Senate’s decision today to reject House Republicans’ baseless attacks on Secretary Mayorkas demonstrates that there was no evidence or constitutional basis to justify impeachment,” said Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Mia Ehrenberg. We have conclusively proven that.”
