House Republicans will send Alejandro Mayorka’s articles of impeachment to the Senate TUESDAY to spark a showdown over the charges against Biden’s embattled border chief
Republicans plan to deliver the articles of impeachment against Department of Homeland Security Sec. Alejandro Mayorkas to the Senate on Tuesday.
The handover is expected to take place around 2:00 PM ET Tuesday afternoon, immediately triggering a constitutional process that will force the Senate to decide the fate of the ousted border chief.
Indeed, Mayorkas will be on Capitol Hill as Republicans air the articles of impeachment against him and set off a showdown.
Currently, Mayorkas is set to testify before the House Homeland Security Committee on the Department of Homeland Security’s $108 billion budget request for 2025 at 10:00 a.m. Tuesday.
Senators are not expected to be sworn in for the trial — which the top Democrat plans to quickly dismiss — until Wednesday morning.
Speaker Mike Johnson had originally planned to send the articles to the Senate last week, but after speaking with GOP Senators, he decided to delay until this week.
Now Johnson’s office has confirmed that the procession to the Senate will take place on Tuesday.
Department of Homeland Security Sec. Alejandro Mayorkas’ future in the post is unclear after the House passed articles of impeachment against the man in charge of US border security, but the Democrat-held Senate is likely to acquit him of the charges
Republicans charge that Mayorkas intentionally loosened restrictions on illegal immigration at the behest of President Joe Biden
Speaker Mike Johnson has claimed that around 9 million migrants have been caught illegally crossing into the US during Mayorkas’ tenure
How did we get here? Timeline of Mayorka’s impeachment trial:
The Republican-led House Homeland Security Committee has been investigating Mayorkas’ mishandling of the US border since last summer.
The committee issued a report in five installments spanning from July 2023 to December 2023.
In January, Speaker Mark Green, R-Tenn., released a resolution of impeachment with two individual charges against Mayorkas.
The articles of impeachment said Mayorkas “refused to comply with federal immigration laws” amid a record influx of migrants and that he has “violated the public trust” in his claims to Congress that the US-Mexico border is secure.
After a late evening vote, when the articles were sent out of committee on January 31, the resolution was put to a vote on the House floor.
A week later, the House voted 216-214 on the articles of impeachment, and the Republican-backed proposal failed.
But a week later, on 13 February, Parliament tried again and the articles of impeachment were passed by a single vote.
“Secretary Mayorka’s impeachment – the first of a sitting government official in US history – shows how seriously Parliament takes his refusal to uphold the law and his breach of the public trust,” Green told DailyMail.com in a statement.
‘This historic vote followed a thorough, fair, comprehensive and nearly year-long investigation by the House Committee on Homeland Security into Secretary Mayorkas and his handling of the unprecedented border crisis.’
‘Our framers gave Congress this serious authority when public officials choose to ignore the law and inflict serious harm on our constitutional order. The Democrat-led Senate must hold the trial, issue a verdict and hold Secretary Mayorkas accountable,” Green added.
Republicans say Mayorkas has encouraged migrants to cross the U.S. border illegally because DHS has eased penalties for doing so
A number of asylum seekers await transport from customs and border protection. In recent months, thousands of migrants from China have crossed into the United States illegally
Following the passage of the articles in the House, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s office released a statement indicating that the articles would be acted upon immediately after the subsequent work period in the district.
But when that time came and went, the House didn’t send the articles to the Senate, instead working for weeks on massive funding packages to keep the government from a partial shutdown.
After another home office period for the Easter break, Speaker Johnson and his impeachment appointees sent a letter to Schumer on March 28 informing him that they would send the articles to the Senate on April 10.
On April 9, a group of GOP senators led by Sens. Mike Lee, R-Utah, John Kennedy, R-La., Ted Cruz, R-Texas, Roger Marshall, R-Kan., and Ron Johnson, R-Kan. . -Wis., held a press conference in which they advocated that the House delay sending the articles.
The 11th-hour plea for delay was because Republicans knew that if the articles were delivered on time — Wednesday at 5:00 PM – the Senate would have little incentive to have a long trial as many had planned to fly out of DC by Thursday.
“Many members of the House and Senate think Johnson’s timing is stupid because a delivery on Wednesday evening (and) Thursday afternoon is not enough time to win the news cycle and to hammer the battle in Washington,” a senior Senate aide told the DailyMail. uk Tuesday.
Later that evening, Speaker Johnson accepted the senator’s request and held off on sending the articles.
A spokesman for Speaker Johnson said that “to ensure that the Senate has sufficient time to carry out its constitutional duty, the House will forward the articles of impeachment to the Senate next week.”
“There is absolutely no reason for the Senate to abdicate its responsibility to hold an impeachment trial,” Taylor Haulsee told DailyMail.com.
A source familiar with the matter told DailyMail.com that the House is expected to deliver the articles to the Senate on Tuesday, April 16.
The US-Mexico border is an inhospitable place where migrants who cross illegally regularly need immediate medical attention after their perilous journeys
What’s happening next week?
The articles of impeachment against Mayorkas will be physically carried across the Capitol from the House to the Senate by the Johnson-appointed leaders of impeachment.
The procession from the House to the Senate will be led by House staff and will also include the eleven impeachment leaders following them.
The last time the impeachment ceremony took place was in January 2021, when former President Donald Trump was impeached by the House for high crimes and misdemeanors related to his conduct on January 6.
Once on the Senate side, House staff are expected to enter the upper chamber and present the articles to the senator presiding over the floor.
Delivery of the articles immediately begins the process in the Senate.
“As busy as we are, one issue the Senate will have to address soon is the House’s vote to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas,” Schumer said Wednesday after Johnson agreed to delay the articles’ transfer.
‘Our plan over here hasn’t changed: the Senate is ready to go whenever the House is. We want to resolve this issue as soon as possible.’
‘And as I said yesterday, impeachment should never be used to settle political differences. It sets a terrible precedent.’
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has not revealed what he plans to do with the articles of impeachment against Mayorkas
Late. Mike Lee, R-Utah, asked Johnson to delay sending the articles of impeachment to give the Senate more time to consider the proposal
Schumer, who says the Senate will work quickly on the matter without providing further details, shows how close he is keeping his cards close to his chest.
Will Democrats Move to Nullify Mayorkas’ Trial?
He has several ways forward when receiving the articles.
First, he could put the articles up for an immediate vote, which could and probably would result in Democrats voting to advance the bill, meaning there would be no impeachment in the Senate and Mayorkas would be cleared of wrongdoing.
Democrats control the Senate by a slim 51-49 majority, but some Republicans have indicated they would vote to dismiss because there is no way forward for a trial.
Second, he could proceed by swearing in the Senate as a juror in the case, which would then enable the leaders of the House of Representatives to argue their case against Mayorkas before the upper chamber.
After hearing the case, the Senate would vote on the articles.
Schumer’s third option is to send the articles to the committee for review.
The special committee would then examine the articles of impeachment and would later make recommendations on how the Senate should proceed.
In that case, the Senate floor would not be filled with impeachment cases, allowing them to legislate on other issues while simultaneously dealing with Mayorkas’ impeachment case.
It remains to be seen how Schumer wants to move forward.
Senate Republicans are hoping for a full trial, arguing it is the Senate’s constitutional duty.
But since the Senate is controlled by Democrats, it seems unlikely that Schumer will decide to move forward on that matter.