House impeachment managers walked over two articles of impeachment against Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas on Tuesday.
The House voted 214-213 in February to impeach Mayorkas on two charges — that he "has willfully and systemically refused to comply with federal immigration laws" and "knowingly made false statements, and knowingly obstructed lawful oversight of the Department of Homeland Security," according to the charges.
Mayorkas is the first sitting Cabinet secretary in U.S. history to be impeached.
The impeachment process may not last long. Under impeachment rules, the Senate must schedule a trial the next legislative day. But Senate Democrats may attempt to dismiss or table the charges later this week. Republicans have called for a full trial.
Congressional Democrats have argued that Mayorkas neither broke the law, nor committed "high Crimes and Misdemeanors," as the U.S.
Constitution spells out. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has said that he wants to deal with the impeachment "as expeditiously as possible."
“Impeachment should never be used to settle a policy disagreement,” Schumer said. “That would set a horrible precedent for the Congress.”
Sen. John Thune, the No. 2 Republican in the chamber has said there’s an “absolute debacle” at the U.S.-Mexico border.
“It is a national security crisis. There needs to be accountability,” he added.
Any proceeding against Mayorkas would start, at the earliest, on Wednesday. He is the second Cabinet official in U.S. history to face an impeachment trial — in 1876, the Senate tried and acquitted William Belknap, who had resigned as war secretary before the House voted to impeach him, on five articles of “criminally disregarding his duty ... and basely prostituting his high office to his lust for private gain.”
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