After House Impeaches Mayorkas, Senate Democrats Promise A Speedy Acquittal

The House of Representatives succeeded in impeaching Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas in their second attempt on Tuesday. The vote, which passed by one vote (214-213), made Mayorkas the first cabinet-level official to be impeached in 150 years.

The impeachment resolutions, authored by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green (R-Georgia), accuse Mayorkas of “willful and systematic refusal to comply with federal immigration laws” and “breach of public trust,” claiming that he has made false statements about immigration both to Congress and the American people.

These claims have been met with pushback from a large swath of the political world – including, Mayorkas’ team, legal scholars and even currently sitting Republican representatives.

Mia Ehrenberg, a Homeland Security Department spokesperson, said, “House Republicans will be remembered for trampling on the Constitution for political gain rather than working to solve serious challenges at our border.”

Jonathan Turley, a legal scholar and a GOP witness in former President Donald Trump‘s first impeachment trial, said, “there is no current evidence” that Mayorkas “is corrupt or committed impeachable offenses.”

Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colorado), one of the three Republicans who defected on the vote, said before the first attempt at an impeachment vote last week that the proceedings are “a partisan impeachment, not based on what the Constitution actually states.”

The same three Republicans who voted no in the first attempt to pass the impeachment articles last week, Reps. Buck, Tom McClintock (R-California) and Mike Gallager (R-Wisconsin) voted no again on Tuesday. But the return of House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-Louisiana) from cancer treatment gave Republicans the narrow margin they needed to pass the vote.

The vote was cast the same day a special election was held to determine the fate of disgraced former Republican Rep. George Santos‘ seat. The election in New York’s third district was won by Democrat Tom Suozzi, who won’t be sworn in until next Thursday. Republicans worked to push the vote through quickly to eliminate any chance their already narrow margins would be affected by this new Democratic vote.

Even though the impeachment articles passed the House, Mayorkas’ removal from office is highly unlikely.

Next, the articles will go to the Senate, where the Democrats hold a majority, and a trial would surely go in Mayorkas’ favor. But we may not even see a trial. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-New York) is expected to either move to dismiss the two articles or send them to committee, all but terminating the impeachment process.

Schumer has yet to state explicitly how he will proceed, but he did voice his displeasure with the impeachment vote and House Republicans in a statement.

“This sham impeachment effort is another embarrassment for House Republicans,” he said. “House Republicans failed to produce any evidence that Secretary Mayorkas has committed any crime. House Republicans failed to show he has violated the Constitution. House Republicans failed to present any evidence of anything resembling an impeachable offense.”

The vote also came amidst Republicans killing a bipartisan immigration bill that would commit more funding to border security, enforce stricter asylum policy, encourage more deportations and introduce more pathways to legal citizenship.

Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Mississippi) said in a statement after the impeachment vote, “Instead of providing the Department of Homeland Security the resources it needs, or working together towards a bipartisan solution [Republicans have] rejected any solution for the sole reason that they can have a political wedge issue in an election year.”

Mayorkas has vowed to continue his work securing our southern border and has placed blame for any issues he is accused of squarely on the shoulders of Congress. In a letter he wrote before the vote, he said, “The problem with our broken and outdated immigration system are not new” and urged Congress to not kill the immigration bill and to get his department the help needed to address immigration issues.