Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and House Republican impeachment managers told Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) in a letter on Thursday that they will send two impeachment charges against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to the Senate on April 10.
House Republicans are accusing Mayorkas of “serious crimes and wrongdoing,” including “intentional and widespread refusal to obey the law and his violation of the public trust.”
As a result, the long-awaited charges will be delivered to the upper chamber on the Wednesday following the senators' return to Washington from the two-week Easter break.
The move will compel the Senate to address the issue, at least formally, and then Schumer will need to decide whether to conduct a full trial on the Senate floor, vote to dismiss the charges immediately, or refer it to a special committee for evidence.
“We ask you to schedule a prompt trial of the matter,” Johnson wrote in a letter also signed by House Homeland Security Committee Chair Mark Green (R-Tenn.) and House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Michael McCaul (R-Texas).
“The proof on both charges is clear, detailed, and convincing, and the House’s serious act to impeach the first sitting Cabinet official in American history requires timely action by the Senate,” they wrote.
The charges need a two-thirds vote of the Senate to convict Mayorkas and remove him from office.
“If he cares about the Constitution and ending the devastation caused by Biden’s border crisis, Sen. Schumer will promptly schedule a full public trial and listen to the arguments put forward by our impeachment managers,” Johnson said in a statement after releasing the letter.
The House narrowly voted on Feb. 13 to impeach Mayorkas on two charges, 214-213, a week after an earlier vote on the House floor failed 214-216. Three House Republicans joined Democrats in voting against the charges: Reps. Ken Buck (R-Colo.), Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.) and Tom McClintock (R-Calif.).
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on Thursday repeated its previous statement calling the move a “groundless, unconstitutional impeachment.”
“House Republicans will be remembered by history for trampling on the Constitution for political gain rather than working to solve the serious challenges at our border,” DHS said in a statement, pointing out that Mayorkas spent weeks collaborating with a bipartisan group of Senate negotiators on an immigration package.
“Without any evidence or legitimate Constitutional grounds, and despite bipartisan opposition, House Republicans have falsely accused a dedicated public servant who has spent more than 20 years enforcing our laws and serving our country.”
Schumer has declined to say how he will handle the impeachment articles once they arrive in the Senate, only criticizing the allegations as a “sham” and unsupported by evidence.
“House Republicans failed to provide any evidence that Secretary Mayorkas has committed any crime,” Schumer said the day after the House approved the charges.
“House Republicans failed to show he has violated the Constitution. House Republicans failed to present evidence of anything resembling an impeachable offense,” he stated. “This is a new low for House Republicans.”
Schumer’s office stated on Thursday that 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 and Senate President Pro Tempore Patty Murray (D-Wash.) will preside over the chamber.
At that point, senators could decide to immediately dismiss the charges or refer it to an evidentiary committee. Another option would be to allow the House impeachment managers to conduct a full trial on the floor.
House Republicans countered Schumer’s criticisms in their Thursday letter.
They said they adopted a “methodical approach” that led them to conclude Mayorkas “refused to comply with the requirements of immigration laws passed by Congress.”
“In fact, he directed, through a series of memoranda, [Homeland Security] employees to violate U.S. immigration laws,” they wrote. “Throughout his tenure, he has repeatedly lied to Congress and the American people about the scope of the crisis and his role in it.
“His unlawful actions are responsible for the historic crisis that has devastated communities throughout our country, from the smallest border town in Texas to New York City,” they asserted.
However, their assessment clashes with immigration law experts, who found that Mayorkas’s policies were not in conflict with existing statutes. not in conflict with existing statutes.
And their claims that he lied to Congress are largely based on exchanges in which he disagreed with lawmakers over whether the border was under control.
The other House impeachment managers who signed the letter were Reps. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), Clay Higgins (R-La.), Ben Cline (R-Va.), Michael Guest (R-Miss.), Andrew Garbarino (R-N.Y.), Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), August Pfluger (R-Texas), Harriet Hageman (R-Wyo.) and Laurel Lee (R-Fla.).
Senate Republican leaders have urged Schumer to hold a full trial on the Senate floor once the impeachment articles arrive in the chamber.
“The House of Representatives has decided that Secretary Mayorkas has committed impeachable offenses. That issue will come before the United States Senate. I believe the Senate needs to hold a trial,” Senate Republican Whip John Thune (S.D.) announced at the weekly Senate GOP leadership press conference on Feb. 27.
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) later said he agreed with Thune.
“I think that would be the best way forward,” he said.
The Senate last held an impeachment trial of a sitting Cabinet member in 1876, when it acquitted Secretary of War William Belknap on charges of “criminally disregarding his duty … and basely prostituting his high office to his lust for private gain.”
Rebecca Beitsch contributed. Updated at 2:12 p.m. EDT
