Speaker Johnson Announces House Will Delay Sending Mayorkas Impeachment Articles to Senate

Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas testifies before the House Homeland Security Committee in Washington on Nov. 15, 2023. (Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times)

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) announced on April 9 he will delay sending the articles of impeachment against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to the Senate by a week.

This comes a day before the House was scheduled to do so.

The articles will instead be sent to the Senate on April 15, according to Sens. John Kennedy (R-La.) and Mike Lee (R-Utah).

“To ensure the Senate has adequate time to perform its constitutional duty, the House will transmit the articles of impeachment to the Senate next week. There is no reason whatsoever for the Senate to abdicate its responsibility to hold an impeachment trial,” Johnson spokesperson Taylor Haulsee told CNN in a statement on April 9.

The House impeached Mr. Mayorkas in February over what Republicans said was him failing to enforce immigration laws amid the crisis at the southern border, where millions of illegal immigrants have crossed since President Joe Biden took office on Jan. 20, 2021.

Senate Republicans want the upper congressional chamber to hold a full trial.

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“This is an absolute debacle at the southern border. It is a national security crisis,” said Senate Minority Whip John Thune (R-S.D.). “There needs to be accountability, and the Senate needs to conduct a trial where senators have an opportunity to examine the evidence and record and come to a conclusion.”

“The Constitution, Senate rules and precedent are clear: The Senate has an obligation to vote on articles of impeachment. In the nation’s history, there have been 21 instances in which the House has sent articles of impeachment to the Senate. In three of those cases, the official who was impeached had left office, so the Senate didn’t proceed,” wrote Mr. Lee and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) in The Wall Street Journal on April 7.

“In the other 18 cases—including Donald Trump’s second impeachment, which the House delivered after his term ended—the Senate conducted a trial and senators ultimately voted guilty or not guilty,” they continued. “That’s the process demanded by the Constitution and clearly laid out in the Senate rules.”

It is expected that the Senate will table the trial. However, the senators, who serve as jurors during impeachment trials, have to at least be sworn in. Senate President Pro Tempore Patty Murray (D-Wash.) will preside. Were the trial to be tabled, it would be the first time that happened.

“We are ready to go whenever they are,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) told reporters on April 9. “We are sticking with our plan. We’re going to move this as expeditiously as possible.”

In their Wall Street Journal piece, Mr. Cruz and Mr. Lee claimed that Mr. Schumer wants to throw the impeachment matter under the rug by putting forth a motion to table the trial.

“Why would they do it? Because 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. He wants to avoid news coverage of how bad the border crisis is,” they wrote.

“He also wants to insulate Democrats from having to vote guilty or not guilty,” they continued. “By tabling the articles of impeachment, Democrats don’t have to go on the record either admitting that Mr. Mayorkas is violating the law, or condoning his actions and failures to act.”

Democrats have slammed the impeachment.

“Impeachment should never be used to settle policy disagreements,” Mr. Schumer told reporters on April 9.

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) blasted the impeachment “crazy and stupid.”