What to expect in Homeland Security Mayorkas impeachment proceedings
WASHINGTON — When the House of Representatives sends its articles of impeachment against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to the Senate on Wednesday, Democrats plan to quickly dismiss the case.
Senate Republicans say they won’t let that happen quietly, however. A group of seven ultraconservative senators led by Sen. Mike Lee, Republican of Utah, denounced the plan for nearly an hour on the Senate floor Monday evening, urging their colleagues to vote in favor of a full impeachment trial — under difficult to face the anger of voters. the polls this fall.
“If you are so convinced that the accusations against Secretary Mayorkas are baseless, then why not hold a trial?” Lee said on the field Sunday. “That’s exactly what it looks like when someone is aware there’s a problem and wants to sweep it under the rug… You can’t hide it.”
The Senate has held a trial for each indicted official, unless they die or leave office before a trial can be held, Lee told USA TODAY before the speeches. “Taking it down is not only a terrible idea, but it’s also unconstitutional.”
The group is also considering erecting additional procedural barriers to dismissal. These obstacles won’t force their colleagues to allow a trial, but it could push them to cast politically uncomfortable votes in a high-stakes election year.
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Democrats narrowly control the chamber 51-49, meaning they can dismiss the trial on their own if senators vote along party lines. Even if senators chose to hold a trial, it is unlikely to obtain the two-thirds majority needed to convict.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has repeatedly called it a “sham impeachment” that constitutes “a new low for House Republicans.”
“House Republicans have failed to produce a shred of evidence that Secretary Mayorkas committed a crime,” Schumer said earlier this year, and “have failed to present a shred of evidence of anything resembling an offense punishable by dismissal.
Why did the Republican-led House of Representatives impeach Mayorkas?
The Republican-led House voted to impeach Mayorkas in February by a vote of 214 to 213, making him the second cabinet secretary in American history to be impeached (the first was nearly 150 years ago). No Democrats supported this effort and a few Republicans also voted against it.
House Republicans argued that Mayorkas violated the constitution by willfully refusing to enforce border security laws.
The House impeachment inquiry “has demonstrated beyond doubt that Secretary Mayorkas willfully and systematically refused to comply with the laws of the United States and betrayed the public trust,” the president’s representative said. House Homeland Security Committee Rep. Mark Green, R-Tenn. ., earlier this year.
But Democrats, some Republicans, constitutional law experts and former Homeland Security secretaries argued the move used the impeachment process — generally reserved for conduct considered high crimes and misdemeanors — to settle a political disagreement, thereby weakening a powerful tool of Congress.
“We accepted impeachment and we made it a social media issue rather than a constitutional issue,” Rep. Ken Buck, R-Colo., told reporters shortly after announcing he would leave Congress earlier. “This place keeps getting worse and I don’t need to spend my time here.”
The debate comes amid growing immigration to the southern border, as people fleeing dangerous conditions and economic uncertainty in Central and South America seek refuge in the United States. Immigration has become one of the main issues in this fall’s presidential election. In January, immigration was the top issue cited by American voters in a Gallup poll. A February survey by the Pew Research Center found that 80% of Americans believe the government is doing a poor job managing the number of migrants at the border.
What to expect in the Senate
House Speaker Mike Johnson will hold a ceremony Wednesday to sign the articles of impeachment.
The articles of impeachment will then be transported through the Capitol building to the Senate by the House impeachment managers, who include Green, Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Rep. Michael McCaul, R -Texas, and Reps. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., Marjorie Taylor. Greene, R-Ga., Ben Cline, R-Va., Andrew Garbarino, R-Y., Michael Guest, R-Miss., Clay Higgins, R-La. Laurel Lee, R-Fla., August Pfluger, R-Texas, and Harriet Hageman, R-Wyo.
The articles will be read aloud. On Thursday, each senator will be sworn in as a juror in the trial.
Democratic leaders would then have to decide whether to dismiss the lawsuit, which would only require a majority vote.
However, it is unclear when this move will take place, or whether moderate members of each party might leave their peers. When asked where they stood on dismissing the trial, several senators, including Manchin, Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, and Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, declined to say how they would vote (though that Manchin called the impeachment effort “pure “shit” in February.)
The Senate could also choose to send the impeachment trial to a committee to avoid it taking up valuable time, which would ultimately return to the Senate as a whole to vote on conviction.
News Source : www.usatoday.com
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