House committee holds final impeachment hearing for DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas

Table Of Content

• Editorial: Sending armed troops to quash peaceful campus protests is a dangerous idea
• House impeaches Alejandro Mayorkas in historic vote, punishing DHS chief over handling of U.S.-Mexico border
• GOP Sen. Kennedy: Democrats are sweeping this 'under the rug'
• GOP Sen. Kennedy asks to recess until 2004
• House Republicans send Mayorkas impeachment articles to the Senate, forcing trial
• Hearing on Impeachment Resolution Against Secretary Mayorkas, Part 2

The Senate trial process has begun, Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., announced. Then Schumer said that Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, would administer the oath to her. Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., objected to a timing agreement on debate and holding votes that Schumer proposed. "And by doing what we just did, we have, in effect, ignored the directions of the House, which were to have a trial," he continued.

Editorial: Sending armed troops to quash peaceful campus protests is a dangerous idea

After he entered evidence into the record, Clymer moved for a vote on impeachment. Just hours earlier, Belknap had raced to the White House and begged Grant to accept his resignation, which the president did. The Senate voted 51-49, along party lines, against Sen. Ted Cruz's motion to go into closed session. Republican Leader Mitch McConnell called a vote to try to table it but that failed, on the third party-line vote of the afternoon. He called for the Senate to adjourn until Nov. 6, which is the day after the election.

Mayorkas undaunted by prospect of second impeachment vote - POLITICO

Mayorkas undaunted by prospect of second impeachment vote.

Posted: Sun, 11 Feb 2024 08:00:00 GMT [source]

House impeaches Alejandro Mayorkas in historic vote, punishing DHS chief over handling of U.S.-Mexico border

The three Republicans who voted last week against impeachment stuck with their decision this week. The Department of Homeland Security has said Congress has never given the executive branch the resources and personnel needed to detain every migrant as required by federal immigration law. It also denied Mayorkas lied to lawmakers, pointing to how the department uses "operational control" internally. Tuesday’s outcome could provide lessons for both parties as the general election season nears and both the presidential contest and the race for control of the House are expected to turn, in large part, on the views of suburban voters. If there are too many absences, Republicans will consider delaying the vote — a risky move given the outcome of the New York special election could affect the vote total if it is delayed. Deeply reported insights into legislation, politics and policy from Sacramento, Washington and beyond.

GOP Sen. Kennedy: Democrats are sweeping this 'under the rug'

It was an effective start to what could otherwise be a new era of potentially crisis governing. House Republicans are expected to be lurching from one standoff to the next after last week's raucous speaker's race that showcased the challenges ahead as McCarthy confronts a rebellious majority as well as the limits of President Joe Biden's remaining agenda on Capitol Hill. Similarly the House passed a bi-partisan bill codifying same-sex marriage in July, worried that the right would not withstand the new conservative faction on the Supreme Court. The Senate pushed its vote to after the election concerned about getting the necessary Republican votes for it to pass.

Scenario: Democrats Take Both the House and the Senate

The truth invariably gets in the way of this bogus impeachment, but thankfully Republicans must still meet a high bar. But, of course, migrants, drugs and weapons have been illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border over the course of several presidential administrations. Even if the GOP-controlled House impeaches Mayorkas, it is highly unlikely that he would be convicted in a trial in the Senate, which has a Democratic majority and would require a vote of two-thirds of senators to remove him from office. Still, his impeachment would be historic, given that he would be the first Cabinet official to be impeached in almost 150 years.

GOP Sen. Kennedy asks to recess until 2004

Had they moved to a trial, Republicans still would have lacked the support of two-thirds of the Senate, which would have been needed to convict and remove Mayorkas from office. House Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana led a delegation of more than 60 Republicans to the border last week. He called the trip an "eye opener," saying they got a "first-hand look at the damage and chaos the border catastrophe is causing in all of our communities."

Monday saw a group of Republican and Democratic senators head to the southern U.S. border with Mexico as they try to develop an immigration overhaul to curb the flow of migrants. By a single vote, House Republicans impeached Mayorkas in February for his handling of the border. It was the first time in nearly 150 years that a cabinet secretary had been impeached. It’s no surprise considering Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Bakersfield) has been clamoring since last year for Mayorkas to resign or face impeachment proceedings. Articles of impeachment were filed in early January, but the GOP effort gained steam last week with a House Homeland Security committee hearing about the effect of U.S.-Mexico border policies.

They must lock up their phones in their respective party cloakrooms during the trial. Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., said he think this will be the end of the impeachment in the Senate, asking why there would be an incentive to go through with any future trials if Democrats dismiss this one. Mayorkas is the second Cabinet member to be impeached, but the first to still be in office.

House Republicans accuse Mayorkas and the Biden administration of disregarding federal laws on immigration and seek to make Mayorkas the second Cabinet official impeached in U.S. history. Tuesday’s hearing is another step toward a formal vote to impeach Mayorkas in the full House, which could come as soon as next week, a source close to the impeachment proceedings said. The first accuses him of “willfully and systemically” refusing to comply with federal immigration laws leading to “millions” entering the U.S. illegally. The second article says Mayorkas “breached the public trust” by making false statements to Congress and knowingly obstructing congressional oversight of the Homeland Security Department. The Senate voted that Schumer's point of order is well taken, meaning that it ruled that the first impeachment article is unconstitutional.

The House is now voting on a resolution to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. In a dramatic setback, House Republicans fail to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas after a few GOP lawmakers refused to go along. “Your false accusations do not rattle me and do not divert me” from public service, he wrote. Debate dragged into the night as Democrats tried and failed to amend the resolution. Democrats argue that Mayorkas is acting under his legal authorities at the department and that the criticisms against him do not rise to the level of impeachment. Julia Ainsley is homeland security correspondent for NBC News and covers the Department of Homeland Security and the Justice Department for the NBC News Investigative Unit.

The first impeachment article accuses Mayorkas of releasing migrants into the U.S. who should have been detained. The second article alleges he lied to lawmakers about whether the southern border was secure when he previously testified that his department had "operational control" of the border, and accuses Mayorkas of obstructing congressional oversight of his department. The House will bring back up articles of impeachment for Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Tuesday, according to the floor schedule, as House Majority Leader Steve Scalise is expected to return and deliver the necessary votes to get the effort over the finish line. With the Senate still narrowly held by Democrats, the divided Congress could still be a time of bipartisan deal-making.

It’s unclear if Republicans will have the support from their ranks to go through with the impeachment vote in the full House, especially with their slim majority and with Democrats expected to vote against it. Rep. Nick LaLota, a New York moderate, also plans to vote to impeach Mayorkas. The committee's 18 Republican members said in a statement after Thursday's hearing that they all supported impeaching Mayorkas.

The U.S.-Mexico border is a complex region not easily reduced to sound bites that sometimes turn out to be just myths — or convenient lies. "Rather than find ways to secure our border, Secretary Mayorkas has been busy enacting policies to make it easier to enter our country illegally," Bailey said, adding that states are "forced to bear the enormous cost of Secretary Mayorkas' failure." Republicans also accuse Mayorkas of improperly failing to detain migrants and improperly releasing migrants. A two-thirds majority would be needed to convict him in the Senate, which is virtually impossible given that Democrats have called the case against Mayorkas baseless.

The House’s proceedings against Mayorkas have created an oddly split-screen Capitol Hill, as the Senate works deliberately with the secretary on a bipartisan border security package that is now on life support. The impeachment articles come at the conclusion of a yearlong investigation of the situation at the southern border by Republicans on the Homeland Security Committee. "Secretary Mayorkas has testified before Congress more than any other Cabinet secretary," Thompson said. "His willingness to work with the committee has been a welcomed change from the Trump administration, whose official consistently refused to comply with congressional oversight." The Republicans have been here before, just over a decade ago, when the tea party class swept to the majority in 2011, booting Pelosi from the speaker's office and rushing into an era of hardball politics that shut down the government and threatened a federal debt default. But heading into Monday evening's voting on the rules package, at least two other Republicans raised objections about the backroom deals McCarthy had cut, leaving it unclear if there would be enough GOP support for passage.

The promise of a red wave receded late Tuesday with Democrats defying predictions and flipping several House, Senate and governor's races in places Republicans expected to claim their own. “It is beneath the dignity of the Senate to entertain this nakedly partisan exercise,” Schumer said in a floor speech opening Wednesday’s session. However, Republicans made it clear they are not looking for solutions, especially those with which they disagree. North Carolina Republican Rep. Dan Bishop, visibly agitated, chided Bier for advocating for open borders. Next up was Arizona’s Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb, a possible Republican contender for the U.S. He attested to a massive increase in fentanyl seizures since 2018, and in traffic stops for human smuggling and trafficking, though he noted most drivers are predominantly American.

When confronted by Republicans in congressional hearings, Mayorkas has maintained that the U.S. does have operational control of the country’s borders — a stance that has only further enraged critics and further fueled calls for impeachment, with Republicans accusing him of lying to Congress. WASHINGTON — Members of the House Homeland Security Committee are meeting Tuesday to discuss the Republican-led impeachment articles against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. "For the sake of the Senate's integrity, and to protect impeachment for those rare cases we truly need it, senators should dismiss today's charges," he said on the floor. Talks to get an agreement on how long senators will debate the impeachment and a deal on a number of votes on points of order were blocked last night after Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., objected to the proposal, a Senate source said. In January 2021, 45 Senate Republicans voted to dismiss Donald Trump’s Jan. 6-related impeachment without a trial. That trial only occurred because they lacked the majority vote needed to block it, with five Republicans joining all Democrats against dismissing it.