Washington — The Senate convened Wednesday for the impeachment trial of Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, when senators were sworn in as jurors and tasked with determining whether Mayorkas should be removed from office.
Mayorkas is all but certain to be acquitted on the impeachment charges, given the Democratic majority in the chamber. Just how long the trial will last remains to be seen, but Democrats are hoping to bring it to a swift end.
Sen. Patty Murray, a Washington Democrat and the president pro tempore of the chamber, is presiding over the trial. Murray administered an oath to senators to mark the official start of the trial Wednesday afternoon. Senators then took turns signing an oath book, an indication of the gravity of the proceedings.
The House voted to impeach Mayorkas in February, accusing him of refusing to enforce immigration laws and a “breach of public trust.” He is just the second Cabinet official in U.S. history to be impeached. House Republicans transmitted the articles of impeachment to the Senate one day before the trial, and some of the House impeachment managers, including Reps. Andy Biggs of Arizona and Clay Higgins of Louisiana, observed the proceedings from the floor.
The 51-member Democratic majority, which includes three independents, planned to move to quickly dismiss or delay the trial over the objections of Republicans, who have encouraged Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to hold a comprehensive trial. Last week, all but six members of the Republican conference signed on to a letter demanding that the Senate “properly adjudicate” the House’s impeachment effort.
Some of those Senate Republicans were expected to employ procedural maneuvers to slow down the process, unless they reached an agreement with Democratic leadership to allow for limited time for discussion on the Senate floor.
Schumer said earlier Wednesday that senators would seek an agreement for a period of debate time to “accommodate the wishes” of GOP colleagues, allowing them to offer a vote on trial resolutions and allow for points of order before moving to dismiss. But when he tried to move forward with an agreement under unanimous consent, Sen. Eric Schmitt, a Missouri Republican, objected.
“I will not assist Sen. Schumer in setting our Constitution ablaze,” Schmitt said.
The move threw the chamber’s next steps into question. Following the objection, Schumer raised a point of order asserting that the charge in the first impeachment article does not rise to the level of an impeachable offense under the Constitution.
The articles of impeachment
House Republicans in January unveiled two articles of impeachment against Mayorkas, accusing him of “willful and systemic refusal to comply with the law” and a “breach of public trust.” After an initial attempt failed, the House voted narrowly in February to impeach the secretary under the articles, with three Republicans and all Democrats opposing.
In the first article, House Republicans argue that Mayorkas has “repeatedly violated laws enacted by Congress regarding immigration and border security.” It accuses Mayorkas of overstepping his authority and disregarding federal laws by releasing many asylum seekers into the U.S. and allowing more than 1 million to enter under an authority known as parole.
The House Republicans accuse Mayorkas in the second article of “knowingly making false statements to Congress and the American people and avoiding lawful oversight in order to obscure the devastating consequences of his willful and systemic refusal to comply with the law and carry out his statutory duties.”
DHS has denounced the effort, calling it “baseless,” while saying that House Republicans “continue to ignore the facts and undermine the Constitution.”
“Congressional Republicans should stop wasting time with unfounded attacks, and instead do their job by passing bipartisan legislation to properly fund the Department’s vital national security missions and finally fix our broken immigration system,” a DHS spokesperson said in a statement.
Under the Constitution, the basis for impeachment is “high Crimes and Misdemeanors.” Constitutional scholars argue that the allegations against Mayorkas do not rise to that level.
Alan He contributed reporting.
Kaia Hubbard is a politics reporter for CBS News Digital based in Washington, D.C.
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