United States—The U.S. House of Representatives, with a majority of Republicans, voted on Tuesday to pass two articles of impeachment of Mr. Biden’s top border security official to the Senate. The Democratic-majority Senate is expected to reject the measure swiftly, as reported by Reuters.
House Republicans Pass Impeachment Articles
The House Republican “managers” who will present their case of impeachment to Congress for removing Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas from office – who hope for his impeachment – read aloud their charges of not enforcing U.S. immigration laws and lying to Congress.
Senators remained quiet in their seats.
The politically charged appeal comes around the peak of the arrival of masses of illegal immigrants in the last year. According to a recent survey by a leading political organization, immigration was the most important issue for voters before November 5 of this year, as well as the elections for the president and the congressmen.
Senate Democrats Poised to Dismiss Impeachment Trial
The 100 senators, standing as trial jurors, are expected to be sworn in for the scheduled February 9 trial, which is estimated to last at least one week.
Nevertheless, it is most likely that the top Senate Democrat, Chuck Schumer, will make an attempt to end it beforehand.
They point to the political considerations that House Republicans have factored into this investigation and to the Democrats’ doubts about Mayorkas’ illegal activity.
“Every time there’s a policy disagreement in the House, they send it over here and tie the Senate in knots to do an impeachment trial? That’s absurd. That’s an abuse of the process. That is more chaos,” Schumer said in a speech earlier in the day.
Democrats were predicted to frustrate Republicans’ efforts to vote down the case with procedural problems. At best, they were supposed to hamper the Democrats and slow their efforts.
“Never before has the Senate agreed to a motion to table articles of impeachment—not for an officer of either party—not once,” remarked Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell in a speech.
Mayorkas tested for nearly three hours in front of the House Homeland Security Committee, which is the source of his impeachment in the early parts of his day. He was appointed to testify on his budget for next year, but impeachment seemed very dominant at the gathering.
“I thank you for coming. I understand the emotions of being here today,” Republican Chairman Mark Green said in his closing statement.
Political Ramifications
However, some of the lawmakers argue that the impeachment of Trump is not a good enough use of time for Congress to fight global woes, including the possibility of the Israel-Gaza war turning into a conflict region and Russia finding ground against Ukraine.
Many Republicans have said that ousting Mr. Mayorkas from office would have little effect since Mr. Biden’s immigration policies would persist.
Mayorkas has become the target of false allegations by Republicans over the border situation, but even some Republican lawmakers have said they have seen no evidence of criminal wrongdoing to justify the accusations.
While the Republicans have blamed Mayorkas for creating a “crisis” that they say endangers national safety because of the unexpectedly high number of migrants at the southern border of the U.S. with Mexico, the House Republicans ended up not submitting their impeachment articles to the Senate soon even after having it approved within two months.
Biden’s rival in the prior election, the Republican former President Donald Trump, has positioned immigration as one of his cornerstone campaigns. Earlier this year, Trump helped the downfall of a bipartisan Senate border bill that would have beefed up enforcement.
And on Friday, President Trump released a legislative proposal that tied conditions at the border to his long-standing falsehood about rain fraud, which he claimed led him to lose the 2020 election to Biden.
Things have gotten more heated in the Senate, as some Republicans were fuming at Schumer’s anticipated move to dismiss the case without a trial. The Republicans have been stalling on matters that keep it running efficiently.
Lately, for only the seventh time in 35 years, they wanted to force a long, cumbersome headcount vote just so the Senate could meet recess during the weekend, as reported by Reuters.
Mayorkas is the second cabinet officer to be impeached in a presidential administration after only a second. The last time this was visible to the naked eye was in 1876.