After rushing to impeach Mayorkas, House Republicans delay sending articles to Senate

U.S. House Republicans voted to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Feb. 13 for alleged high crimes and misdemeanors, despite lacking any evidence that he committed any illegal acts. Though GOP lawmakers framed his removal from office as urgent and necessary to save lives, two months later they still have not sent articles of impeachment to the U.S. Senate for trial.

After a month-and-a-half delay, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) and 11 designated House impeachment managers told Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) in a March 28 letter that they planned to deliver the articles to the Senate on April 10. “We urge you to schedule a trial of the matter expeditiously,” they wrote. 

But reportedly concerned that the Democratic-led Senate would quickly dismiss the charges, they opted to delay again. 

“To ensure the Senate has adequate time to perform its constitutional duty, the House will transmit the articles of impeachment to the Senate next week,” a Johnson spokesperson told CNN on April 9. “There is no reason whatsoever for the Senate to abdicate its responsibility to hold an impeachment trial.”

The delay was reportedly at the urging of Senate Republicans, who wanted more time to pressure the Democratic majority to allow a lengthy Senate trial. 

“If we want to have the opportunity in the Senate to have a more fulsome discussions about this when the articles come over, there are times when that could probably happen better than having them come over tomorrow night and having to deal with it Thursday afternoon,” Senate Minority Whip John Thune (R-SD) told CNN.

Missouri Sen. Eric Schmitt told NBC News his “personal view here is that there ought to be a real cost for Chuck Schumer” if the Senate doesn’t hold a full trial.

Several Senate Republicans have criticized the impeachment as a waste of time. North Dakota Sen. Kevin Cramer told HuffPost on Feb. 6 it was “the dumbest exercise and use of time” and predicted it would be “obviously dead on arrival” in the Senate.

“Secretary Mayorkas is following the position of his party and of the president who was elected,”

Utah Sen. Mitt Romney told reporters on April 9, according to the Guardian. Romney said that while he disagreed with those policies, they were not high crimes or misdemeanors. 

House Republicans have been pushing to impeach Mayorkas since his first year in office, baselessly accusing him of “reckless abandonment of border security and immigration enforcement, at the expense of the Constitution and the security of the United States.”

After two failed attempts, the House voted 214-213 to approve an impeachment resolution authored by Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who tweeted in November: “Hundreds of Americans are dying every single day. We cannot wait!”

Michigan Republican Reps. Jack Bergman, Bill Huizenga, John James, Lisa McClain, John Moolenaar, and Tim Walberg all voted for impeachment. 

“Secretary Mayorkas must be impeached and tried for treason,” urged James in a Feb. 5 press statement. “Evidence has proven that Mayorkas’ sustained and willful betrayal of the public trust makes him an accessory to the poisoning of millions of Americans complicit in a modern-day slave trade and so derelict in his duty to secure the homeland that it crosses unequivocally into the realm of high crimes and misdemeanors.”

“The evidence of his wrongdoings is damning,” said Bergman in a Feb. 6 press release. “His abuse of power goes well beyond simple bureaucratic incompetence, and his actions which have put our Nation at extreme risk cannot go unanswered.”

“137,000 illegal aliens were apprehended by CPB in March. This is more proof of the #BidenBorderCrisis that’s being perpetuated by Sec. Mayorkas,” McClain tweeted on April 9, referring to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection. “The House has already impeached the disgraced Secretary, how long will it take the Senate to do the same?”