Mayorkas Impeachment Enters New Phase, With Senators Being Sworn In for Trial on April 11, Though Schumer Could Kill It

Senators are expected to be sworn in for the trial of the homeland security secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas, on April 11 after House Republicans send their articles of impeachment to the upper chamber. Speaker Johnson said in a letter to Senator Schumer on Thursday that the articles would be delivered on April 10. “We urge you to schedule a trial of the matter expeditiously,” Mr. Johnson wrote, accompanied by the 11 Republican members who will serve as impeachment managers or prosecutors during the trial. The GOP has charged Mr. Mayorkas with willfully refusing to enforce immigration laws passed by Congress and lying to the American people and Congress about his role. President Biden’s re-election prospects have been endangered, in part, because voters do not trust him and his administration on immigration and border issues, according to multiple polls, and they believe that President Trump would be more effective in handling the crisis. “The House of Representatives voted to impeach Secretary Mayorkas for high crimes and misdemeanors, including his willful and systemic refusal to comply with the law and his breach of the public trust,” Mr. Johnson writes in his letter. “He refused to comply with the requirements of the immigration laws passed by Congress. In fact, he directed, through a series of memoranda, DHS employees to violate U.S. immigration laws.”Mr. Mayorkas has almost no chance of being convicted by the Democrat-controlled Senate, and Democrats have sneered at the impeachment, which took two separate votes in the House to pass, as a partisan hit job. Whether there will even be a full trial remains an open question.Mr. Schumer has said that the Senate will sit for the trial once the articles of impeachment are delivered to the Senate. “After the House impeachment managers present the articles of impeachment to the Senate, Senators will be sworn in as jurors in the trial the next day,” Mr. Schumer’s office said in a statement. Republicans worry, though, that Mr. Schumer could seek to “table” or kill the impeachment trial shortly after senators are seated. He could refer it to the committee to be debated or discussed, where it would likely die under a Democrat’s gavel. “To table articles of impeachment without ever hearing a single argument or reviewing a piece of evidence would be a violation of our constitutional order and an affront to the American people whom we all serve,” the Republicans write to Mr. Schumer. The Senate trial must at least commence with senators being sworn in as jurors and the presiding officer taking their oath, according to the Constitution. Yet after that, the Senate majority can do almost anything it likes in the process of the trial. In impeachment trials for federal officials like Cabinet secretaries or judges, the chief justice of the United States does not preside, as he does in the case of a president’s impeachment. Instead, the Senate president pro tempore, Senator Murray, will preside over the Mayorkas trial. It is unclear what kind of a defense, if any, Mr. Mayorkas, who has scoffed at his impeachment, will mount. In Senate trials, which are very rare, the defendant usually has lawyers on the Senate floor who serve as defense attorneys, facing off against the impeachment managers. The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Mr. Mayorkas’s plans for a defense.Some Republican senators have expressed skepticism about the trial. Senator Tillis previously told the Sun that he failed to see any high crimes or misdemeanors committed by Mr. Mayorkas. He also described a potential trial as being a “waste of time” for senators when there are more things to do ahead of election season. Mr. Johnson has appointed some of his most conservative members to serve as prosecutors in this case, including Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, Congressman Clay Higgins, and Congressman Ben Cline. The chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, Mark Green, will serve as the lead impeachment manager in the case. The path to impeaching the homeland security secretary was a long one, with hours-long hearings with the secretary himself, local law enforcement officials from across the country who detailed the effects of immigration and the drug trade, and constitutional experts who argued for and against his removal. The issue of illegal immigration has taken a national spotlight in recent months, especially after December 2023 saw the highest number of monthly illegal crossings — more than 300,000 — in history. Violent crimes committed by migrants, including the beating of two New York City police officers by a group of migrants, the murder of Laken Riley, and a sexual assault committed by a migrant against a child in Massachusetts, have all put the migrant crisis front and center for the 2024 campaign.

Mayorkas Impeachment Enters New Phase, With Senators Being Sworn In for Trial on April 11, Though Schumer Could Kill It

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