Senate Rejects Impeachment Charges Against Secretary Mayorkas

The United States Senate’s impeachment trial of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas is over before it started. Democrats, who narrowly control the Senate, voted Wednesday to dismiss the articles of impeachment over the strong objections of Republicans.

Two months ago, it was Democrats who were outraged when House Republicans, they complained, used impeachment, not to prosecute a high crime or misdemeanor, but simply to protest border policies they don’t like. Now, with Democrats undercutting the impeachment process, it was Republicans’ turn to express outrage.

"This is using the nuclear option on impeachment,” said Oklahoma senior Senator James Lankford in an interview Wednesday, “and it’s just literally never been done before."

After the Senators were sworn in as jurors, Majority Leader Schumer argued that never has impeachment been used for purely political purposes before.

"For the sake of the Senate's integrity and to protect impeachment for those rare cases that are truly needed,” Schumer (D-NY) said on the floor, “Senators should dismiss today's charges."

The two articles of impeachment charged Secretary Mayorkas with “willful and systemic refusal to comply with the law” and “breach of public trust.

House impeachment managers were prepared to prosecute the case against Secretary Mayorkas, giving Senators a preview Tuesday.

"In large part because of his unlawful conduct,” said Rep. Mark Green (R-TN), “millions of aliens have illegally entered the United States on an annual basis, with many unlawfully remaining in the United States."

Senator Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) was impressed with what he heard: “They were pretty precise; I mean, he quoted law all the way through it, he quoted the court cases all the way through it."

Mayorkas insists he’s followed the law to the best of his ability, given the limited resources Congress has provided for border security and enforcement. Senator Lankford, who worked closely with Mayorkas in negotiating an immigration reform package that Republicans ultimately rejected, acknowledges Congress has role to play in fixing the immigration system. But says the administration also has a role and has utterly failed.

"It’s clear at this point,” Lankford said, “they have ignored the law, they’re not detaining people, they are releasing people, and they are using parole in a way that no other administration has ever used parole."

By the narrowest of margins — 51-48 and 51-49 — the two articles were dismissed, and the Mayorkas episode, with all that it entails, was put in the rear-view mirror.

"You can’t sweep that under the rug, a sarcastic Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) told reporters, “but I guess you’ve got to give the Democrats some credit for trying."