Senate Begins Impeachment Trial For Alejandro Mayorkas ― Which Probably Won't Last Long

WASHINGTON ― Senators will be sworn in as jurors in the impeachment trial of Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Wednesday, but the proceedings are unlikely to last long.

Democrats are expected to motion to dismiss the case outright because Mayorkas’ actions as homeland security chief don’t rise to the constitutional standard of high crimes and misdemeanors, a view that even some Republicans share.

In remarks on the Senate floor, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) called the effort to oust Mayorkas “the least legitimate, least substantive and most politicized impeachment trial in the history of the United States.”

“The hard right wants to exploit the supremely serious matter of impeachment for the sake of cable news hits and content for social media,” Schumer said. “This is an illegitimate and profane abuse of the U.S. Constitution.”

Prior to the start of the trial, Senate leaders were trying to negotiate an agreement that would allow senators time to debate the case against Mayorkas along with a series of votes on Republican points of order before ultimately voting to dismiss the case.

Several Republican senators, including Mitt Romney of Utah, said that debating the matter would protect the process of impeachment for the future even though they didn’t believe that Mayorkas deserved to be ousted from his job.

It’s likely, however, that a group of conservative Republicans who have been loudly advocating for Mayorkas’ impeachment will object to that trial structure. They agree with the charges by the GOP-controlled House of Representatives that Mayorkas displayed a “willful and systemic refusal to comply with the law” and a “breach of public trust” over his handling of the influx of