Speaker Johnson Moves Mayorkas Impeachment Trial to Tuesday

Mayorkas
Jacquelyn Martin/AP
Neil Munro

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-FL) is rescheduling the Senate’s impeachment trial for President Joe Biden’s pro-migration border security chief, Alejandro Mayorkas.

Johnson planned to initiate the Senate trial by delivering the articles of impeachment on Wednesday. But that timing would allow the Democrats to quickly dismiss the charges as they leave town on a recess scheduled to start that day and run until Monday.

Instead, Johnson will deliver the articles of impeachment on Monday, likely allowing more media coverage of the Democrats’ push to dismiss the impeachment process before it gets significant media coverage.

“I’m very grateful to Speaker Johnson for his willingness to delay this,” said Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT), who is championing the Mayorkas impeachment in the Senate.

Multiple GOP Senators — including Lee, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), and Sen. Roger Marshall (R-KS) —  are trying to force media coverage of the legal charges, which show that Mayorkas has repeatedly broken the immigration laws set by Congress.

The Senate’s calendar is set by Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), who is insisting that Mayorkas was improperly impeached over “policy differences.”

News reports say that Schumer wants a quick vote to table the articles of impeachment, and so ignore the judgment of the House of Representatives. “Impeachment should never be used to settle policy disagreements,” Schumer said Tuesday.

“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,” said Lee. “He wants to avoid news coverage of how bad the border crisis is.”

Schumer dismissed the Johnson delay, saying “We are sticking with our plan — we’re going to move this [process] as expeditiously as possible.”

RELATED — Angel Mom Rips into DHS Chief Mayorkas: He is Partially Responsible for My Daughter’s Fentanyl Poisoning

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Schumer’s pro-Mayorkas views are shared by the establishment media, which has consistently hidden the vast scale, many harms, and the unpopularity of Mayorkas’ pro-migration policies.

Republicans also say Schumer is “nuking” Congress’ constitutional ability and duty to suppress law-breaking by the administration.

“What they’re nuking here is not just a Senate precedent or a Senate rule, but a provision of the Constitution,” Lee said Tuesday, adding:

So separate and apart from how you feel about Secretary Mayorkas in his performance of his duties, anyone who fancies him or herself an institutionalist, someone concerned about the Senate as an institution, should for that reason alone be willing to stand up to this form of legislative tyranny and say “We have an obligation to [hold the trial].”

Several Republicans are also helping to bury the impeachment, despite Mayorkas’ decision to admit more than 7 million migrants into Americans’ communities and workplaces, and despite federal law that requires the detention of migrants until their asylum claims are heard.
“It’s the wrong policy, it has a huge damaging effect on the country — but it’s not a high crime or misdemeanor,” Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) said Tuesday. “I believe a high crime or misdemeanor has not been alleged,” he told reporters.

The articles of impeachment say:

Throughout his tenure as Secretary of Homeland Security, Alejandro N. Mayorkas has repeatedly violated laws enacted by Congress regarding immigration and bor13 der 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 Constitu18 tion 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 imposition 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.

However, the vast majority of GOP Senators are likely to find Mayorkas guilty — marking the first time in the nation’s history that a sitting cabinet member faces an impeachment vote in the Senate.

Almost all Democrats are expected to vote against the impeachment.

Mayorkas has repeatedly explained that he supports more migration because of his migrant parents, his sympathy for migrants, and his support for “equity” between Americans and foreigners. He also justifies his welcome for migrants by saying his priorities are above the law, and claiming that the “needs” of U.S. business are paramount — regardless of the cost to ordinary Americans, the impact on U.S. children, or Americans’ rational opposition.

In May 2023, Mayorkas explained his migrant-first motivations in a graduation speech to the U.S. Coast Guard Academy:

My drive has been defined by a very clear purpose. My mother’s and father’s life journeys were defined by displacement. My mother was twice a refugee, first from war-torn Europe and, 19 years later, with my father, my sister, and me from the communist takeover of Cuba. My mother lost most of her family to the Nazi concentration camps, and she never really regained her sense of security. In Cuba, my father lost the business he had started, as well as the chance to be by his mother’s side when she passed. My parents were both extraordinary people – principled and kind beyond measure. They instilled in me the values by which they lived unflinchingly … They are the primary engine of my drive, and the primary reason why I work so hard, my purpose.

Thousands of foreign migrants have been killed and raped because of Mayorkas’ policies — along with a growing number of Americans.

 

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