House Delivers Articles Of Impeachment Against Alejandro Mayorkas To Senate

WASHINGTON ― The Republican-led House delivered its articles of impeachment against Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to the Senate, setting the stage for the swearing in of senators as jurors in a trial on Wednesday.

But the proceedings likely won’t get very far: Democrats are expected to offer a motion to dismiss the case on the ground that it’s baseless and doesn’t rise to the constitutional standard of high crimes and misdemeanors, a view that even some Republicans share.

And with other pressing matters before the upper chamber, including a looming Friday deadline for reauthorization of top national intelligence programs and possible votes on U.S. aid to Israel and Ukraine, many senators would like to move on from the Mayorkas trial as quickly as possible.

On Tuesday, 11 House impeachment managers carried an impeachment charge against Mayorkas in a ceremonial procession across the Capitol building and hand-delivered it to clerks on the well of the Senate.

Standing before the Senate, Rep. Mark Green (R-Tenn.), the lead impeachment manager, read the article aloud accusing Mayorkas of “willful and systemic refusal to comply with the law” and a “breach of public trust” over his handling of the influx of migrants on the U.S.-Mexico border.

Democrats, meanwhile, flatly rejected the impeachment push as a partisan stunt intended to damage President Joe Biden’s standing ahead of the November election. The charges, they argued, are a matter of policy dispute with the Biden administration’s execution of immigration laws and not ‘high crimes’ as outlined in the constitution.

“Impeachment should never be used to settle a policy disagreement. That would set a horrible precedent for the Congress,”