The GOP-led House of Representatives impeached Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas last month. Now, Congress is taking the next step toward removing him by April 10.
House Speaker Mike Johnson said Thursday he would send articles of impeachment against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to the Senate after the end of the chamber’s recess.
The Republican speaker said he would send the two articles on April 10.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer plans to swear in senators as jurors in the trial the next day, according to his office. The House impeached Mayorkas on a razor-thin party-line vote in February, but Johnson had delayed sending the articles of impeachment to the Senate while Congress addressed funding for the government.
Before Mayorkas, the House had gone more than 150 years without impeaching a Cabinet official. House Republicans impeached him for presiding over the crisis at the border, and they charged him with perjury, contempt of Congress, and dereliction of duty.
However, Schumer’s Democrat-controlled Senate looks unlikely to remove Mayorkas. Schumer himself claimed to be reserving removal only for cases of high crimes and misdemeanors.
“House Republicans failed to present any evidence of anything resembling an impeachable offense,” Schumer said after the House acted.
The House needs only a simple majority to impeach, but the Senate needs a two-thirds majority to remove. Today’s Senate remains split 51-49, and not every Senate Republican supports removal.
Still, some Republicans are hoping for a public trial, an opportunity to air Mayorkas’ failures.
Johnson urged Schumer to hold “a full public trial” for the sake of “ending the devastation caused by Biden’s border catastrophe.”
The House speaker added that Mayorkas has “violated the public trust and willfully refused to follow federal immigration laws.”
“He deserves to be impeached and the American people demand that those responsible for the border crisis be held accountable,” he concluded.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.