Senate majority quashes Mayorkas impeachment due to lack of specified crimes

The U.S. Senate voted on April 17 to reject two articles of impeachment against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, deeming them unconstitutional because the U.S. House of Representatives failed to specify any high crimes or misdemeanors. All 49 Senate Republicans backed a series of delaying motions, stalling for hours in protest of what many misleadingly called an unprecedented action.

Senate Republicans themselves attempted a similar maneuver three years ago.

After two failed attempts, the GOP-led House voted 214-213 on Feb. 6 for an impeachment resolution authored by Georgia Republican Rep. Majorie Taylor Greene. Citing the Biden administration’s immigration policies, they accused Mayorkas of “willful and systemic refusal to comply with the law” and “breach of public trust.” California Republican Rep. Tom McClintock noted, however, that the articles “fail to identify an impeachable crime that Mayorkas has committed.”

At the time, several Senate Republicans denounced impeachment as time wasting. North Dakota Sen. Kevin Cramer called it “the dumbest exercise and use of time,” telling HuffPost the articles were “obviously dead on arrival” in the Senate. 

Worried that the Senate would not hold a lengthy trial, House Republicans delayed transmitting the articles for more than two months before finally delivering them on April 16. 

A day later, after Missouri Republican Sen. Eric Schmitt blocked a Democratic proposal to allow a few hours for a trial, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) raised points of order that both impeachment articles were unconstitutional. 

Though Senate rules prohibited debate on Schumer’s motions, Republican senators took turns denouncing it and offering motions to hold a longer debate or adjourn. One senator proposed to adjourn until April 30. After that motion failed, another proposed to adjourn until May 1. A third attempted to adjourn until November. Each motion failed 51-49, along party lines.

“Our colleagues know that we are obligated to take these proceedings seriously. This is what our oath prescribes. It’s what the history and precedent require, and I would urge each of our colleagues to consider that this is what the framers actually envisioned,” argued Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY). “This process must not be abused; it must not be short-circuited. History will not judge this moment well.”

McConnell had joined 44 Republican colleagues on January 26, 2021, in voting to table articles of impeachment charging former President Donald Trump with incitement of insurrection. Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul had made that motion, arguing it was unconstitutional to try someone who is no longer in office.

Pennsylvania Democratic Sen. Bob Casey told CNN before the vote that the Senate should be focused on a bipartisan border security deal instead: “You’ve got to hire border patrol agents, you’ve got to hire more people at ICE to enforce border security. You can’t do that with an exercise like they’re engaged with. It’s a partisan exercise, and I think it’s a waste of people’s time, but we have to go through it.” 

After the Senate voted to reject both articles of impeachment against Mayorkas and to adjourn, Democratic Sen. John Fetterman said in a press release: “The House GOP can’t seem to grasp that impeachment is a constitutional tool reserved for cases of ‘high crimes and misdemeanors,’ not political vendettas. These efforts by Speaker Johnson and the House GOP to cheapen a solemn process like impeachment for political gain set a bad precedent and divert attention from the real problem: the crisis at our border. This stunt is nothing more than bad performance art and a waste of time. House Republicans are doing everything they can to turn the United States Congress into the Jerry Springer Show. It’s charades like this that make people hate Washington. Let’s get to work, pass a bill to secure our border, and do our jobs.”