On Monday, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) officially endorsed the articles of impeachment targeting U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas. These articles are scheduled to be presented to the U.S. Senate on Tuesday afternoon. Johnson’s decision to sign the articles of impeachment against Mayorkas was made following the rescheduling of the Senate’s impeachment trial from Wednesday to Tuesday.
Speaker Mike Johnson has signed the articles of impeachment against Homeland Security Sec. Alejandro Mayorkas.
The articles are expected to be presented to the Senate on Tuesday at 2:00 pm. pic.twitter.com/77MBgv15ke
— Jon Michael Raasch (@JMRaasch) April 15, 2024
In February, the House of Representatives decided to impeach Mayorkas with a narrow margin of 214 to 213, marking him as the first cabinet official to face impeachment in nearly 150 years.
Despite efforts from Republican senators like Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), Sen. Roger Marshall (R-KS), and Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) to highlight the legal allegations against Mayorkas, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has maintained that Mayorkas’ impeachment was unjust due to “policy disagreements.”
“Mr. Schumer wants to prevent the House impeachment managers from presenting evidence of the disaster that has unfolded on the southern border because Mr. Mayorkas refuses to follow the law,” Lee said in a press release. “He wants to avoid news coverage of how bad the border crisis is.”
Johnson postponed sending the articles of impeachment to the Senate last week at the request of Republican senators who needed more time to gather support for a complete impeachment trial.
The articles of impeachment against Mayorkas say:
“Throughout his tenure as Secretary of Homeland Security, Alejandro N. Mayorkas has repeatedly violated laws enacted by Congress regarding immigration and border security. In large part because of his unlawful conduct, millions of aliens have illegally entered the United States on an annual basis with many unlawfully remaining in the United States. His refusal to obey the law is not only an offense against the separation of powers in the Constitution of the United States, it also threatens our national security and has had a dire impact on communities across the country. Despite clear evidence that his willful and systemic refusal to comply with the law has significantly contributed to unprecedented levels of illegal entrants, the increased control of the Southwest border by drug cartels, and the impositions of enormous costs on States and localities affected by the influx of aliens, Alejandro N. Mayorkas has continued in his refusal to comply with the law, and thereby acted to the grave detriment of the interests of the United States.”