BY: ARIANA FIGUEROA
WASHINGTON — U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson announced Thursday that two articles of impeachment against Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas will be sent to the U.S. Senate in early April when senators return from recess.
“We call upon you to fulfill your constitutional obligation to hold this trial,” Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, wrote in a letter to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat.
“The American people demand a secure border, an end to this crisis, and accountability for those responsible,” said Johnson. “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.”
With Democrats holding a slim majority in the Senate, it’s unlikely Mayorkas will be removed from office. But the push for a trial is a mark of House Republicans’ escalation of their opposition to the White House’s immigration policy. The topic has also taken center stage in the 2024 presidential campaigns.
The process for a trial in the Senate will kick-start when the House impeachment managers walk over the two articles of impeachment to the upper chamber on April 10.
“As we have said previously, 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,” Schumer’s office said in a statement.
Senate President Pro Tempore Sen. Patty Murray, a Washington state Democrat, will preside, Schumer’s office said.
According to the rules currently on the books, the Senate must act in some way when the articles of impeachment are presented.
For example, senators can follow the already established rules, vote to make new rules or even take a procedural step to dispose of the impeachment resolution.
The House impeachment managers are Republican Reps. Mark Green of Tennessee, Michael McCaul of Texas, Andy Biggs of Arizona, Ben Cline of Virginia, Andrew Garbarino of New York, Michael Guest of Mississippi, Harriet Hageman of Wyoming, Clay Higgins of Louisiana, Laurel Lee of Florida, August Pfluger of Texas and Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia.
The White House has in the past condemned House Republicans’ efforts to impeach Mayorkas, calling it “shameless,” and an “unconstitutional stunt.”
“This political and unconstitutional exercise is also drawing broad condemnation by conservatives in the U.S. Senate, where the impeachment will now be sent and where Republican senators have sharply dismissed it as baseless and a waste of time,” the White House said in mid-February.
House Republicans, who hold a slim majority, impeached Mayorkas on their second try, on the grounds that Mayorkas willfully ignored immigration law and lied to Congress about the status of border security.
Following Mayorkas’ impeachment on Feb. 13, Schumer called the efforts a “sham.”
“House Republicans failed to present any evidence of anything resembling an impeachable offense,” Schumer said on the Senate floor on Feb. 13.