Mayorkas impeachment headed to Senate for April 11 trial

WASHINGTON — Speaker Mike Johnson said House leaders will send the articles of impeachment for Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to the Senate on April 10, which is expected to tee up a Senate trial as soon as the next day.

Johnson and 11 GOP-appointed impeachment managers, in a letter Thursday, asked Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., to schedule a trial “expeditiously.”

The sharply partisan Mayorkas impeachment, focused on U.S.-Mexico border policy, is the first for a Cabinet member in more than a century. Senate leadership has not said how they plan to handle the trial, which could start eating up Senate floor time as soon as April 11.

Schumer’s office said Thursday that after the House impeachment managers present the articles of impeachment to the Senate, senators will be sworn in as jurors in the trial the next day. Senate President Pro Tempore Patty Murray, D-Wash., will preside.

The impeachment, which requires a two-thirds majority to convict, is unlikely to succeed in the narrowly divided Senate, where Democrats who control the chamber have largely backed Mayorkas and the Biden administration.

A spokesman for Schumer’s office reiterated Schumer’s statement from February calling the impeachment a “sham” and “another embarrassment” for House Republicans.

Conservative Republicans have targeted Mayorkas for months over disagreements about the Biden administration’s immigration policy. The House adopted the two impeachment articles, for “willful and systemic refusal to comply with the law” and “breach of public trust” on a 214-213 vote last month after a previous attempt was rejected on the floor.

The letter to Schumer on Thursday reiterated many of the accusations against Mayorkas, including that he violated immigration law through mass parole and that he lied to Congress about border security.

“Throughout his tenure, he has repeatedly lied to Congress and the American people about the scope of the crisis and his role in it. His unlawful actions are responsible for the historic crisis that has devastated communities throughout our country, from the smallest border town in Texas to New York City,” the letter said.

Johnson’s letter also lists Republican Reps. Mark E. Green of Tennessee, who chairs the House Homeland Security Committee and led the impeachment effort on his panel, and 10 other managers.

The list includes Republican Reps. Michael McCaul of Texas, Andy Biggs of Arizona, Clay Higgins of Louisiana, Ben Cline of Virginia, Michael Guest of Mississippi, Andrew Garbarino of New York, Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, August Pfluger of Texas, Harriet M. Hageman of Wyoming and Laurel Lee of Florida.