House Republicans on Tuesday are expected to formally present their articles of impeachment against Alejandro Mayorkas, the homeland security secretary, to the Senate, part of the party’s attempt to force an election-year showdown with the Biden administration over immigration and border security.
In February, House Republicans bypassed skepticism within their own ranks and unified Democratic opposition to approve by a one-vote margin two articles of impeachment against Mayorkas, making him the first sitting cabinet official to be impeached.
Democrats, who control the Senate, have signalled their plans to quickly dispense with the articles, arguing that the politically charged proceedings amount to little more than a policy dispute with the administration, a far cry from the high bar of “high crimes and misdemeanors” outlined in the constitution. A two-thirds majority is needed to convict Mayorkas, which would be impossible without the support of some Democrats.
Eleven Republican impeachment managers will transmit the articles to the Senate in a ceremonial procession, crossing the rotunda of the US Capitol to inform the Senate they were ready to prosecute the secretary for “willful and systemic refusal” to enforce border policies and a “breach of public trust”.
The House speaker, Mike Johnson, initially delayed the delivery of the articles to focus on funding legislation to avert a government shutdown. Then the transmission was delayed again after Senate Republicans asked for more time to strategize ways to ensure a Senate trial.
Republicans are pressuring Democrats to hold a full trial.
“We call upon you to fulfill your constitutional obligation to hold this trial,” Johnson and the 11 Republican impeachment managers wrote in a letter to the Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer. “The American people demand a secure border, an end to this crisis, and accountability for those responsible.”
“Despite the sham nature of the impeachment and the likelihood it will soon fizzle and fail in the Senate, the right-wing push has helped mainstream dangerous conspiracies and lies that have been tied to real acts of violence and continue to stoke dangers and divides today.”
In remarks on Tuesday, Mitch McConnell charged that it would be “beneath the Senate’s dignity to shrug off our clear responsibility” and not give thorough consideration to the charges against Mayorkas.
“I will strenuously oppose any effort to table the articles of impeachment and avoid looking the Biden administration’s border crisis squarely in the face,” the Senate minority leader said.
Among the Republicans tapped to serve as impeachment managers are the far-right lawmakers Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Andy Biggs of Arizona, as well as the House homeland security chair, Mark Green of Tennessee, whose committee drafted the articles.
Several Republican senators have cast doubt on the House’s impeachment effort, former secretaries of homeland security and several conservative legal scholars have denounced the Republicans’ case against Mayorkas as deeply flawed and warned that it threatens to undermine one of Congress’s most powerful tools for removing officials guilty of “treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors”.
After the articles are received on Tuesday afternoon, Schumer said the Senate would convene on Wednesday as a “court of impeachment” and senators will be sworn in as jurors. Patty Murray, the Senate president pro tempore, a Democrat of Washington, would preside over the chamber for the proceedings.
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Schumer again reiterated his intent to address the charges as “expeditiously as possible”.
“Impeachment should never be used to settle a policy disagreement,” he said, adding: “Talk about awful precedents. This would set an awful precedent for Congress.”
A group of Republican senators are contemplating ways to slow-walk the process, suggesting they will deliver lengthy speeches and raise time-consuming procedural inquiries to keep the attention on immigration, one of Biden’s greatest political vulnerabilities ahead of the 2024 election.
Mayorkas, the first Latino and first immigrant to lead the agency, has become the face of the Biden administration’s struggle to control record migration to the US-Mexico border. With the support of the president, Mayorkas has forcefully defended himself throughout the process, writing in a January letter to House Republicans: “your false accusations do not rattle me”.
Ahead of the 2024 election, Republicans have assailed Biden over the border while Donald Trump, the party’s likely presidential nominee, has again put immigration at the center of his presidential campaign. Americans broadly disapprove of the president’s handling of the border, now a top concern for many voters.
An attempt to pass a bipartisan border bill – touted as the most conservative piece of immigration legislation in decades – was derailed by Republicans at the behest of Trump, who did not want Biden to notch a victory on an issue that plays to the former president’s political advantage.
He has also asked Congress to approve requests for more border patrol agents and immigration court judges, but Republicans have refused, saying Biden should use his executive authority to stem the flow of migrants. Biden has said he is mulling a far-reaching executive action that would dramatically reduce the number of asylum seekers who can cross the southern border.
