President Mike Johnson is delaying sending articles of impeachment against the Secretary of Homeland Security. Alejandro Mayorkas to the Senate after pressure from his Republican colleagues.
The latest development in the ongoing Mayorkas impeachment saga comes just one day before the Senate received the articles of impeachment, which would have immediately launched a trial for Biden’s embattled border chief.
A spokesman for President Johnson said that “to ensure that 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 for the Senate to abdicate its responsibility to hold an impeachment trial,” Taylor Haulsee told DailyMail.com.
However, it is up in the air whether Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer actually decides to hold a trial.
And some Republicans worried that Schumer would use Wednesday night’s delivery to try to send senators home over the weekend without holding a trial.
‘Many members of the House and Senate think Johnson’s timing is silly, because a Wednesday night delivery [and] “Thursday afternoon fights are not enough time to beat the news cycle and build the fight in Washington,” a senior Senate aide told DailyMail.com on Tuesday.
Migrants mostly from Central America wait in line to cross the border at the Gateway International Bridge into the US from Matamoros, Mexico.
The House passed articles of impeachment against Mayorkas in February, but Speaker Mike Johnson has not yet delivered them to the Senate.
Johnson was reportedly planning to send the articles to the Senate on Wednesday, but after opposition to that plan from Republican senators, the articles will now be delivered next week.
Conflicted DHS Sec. Alejandro Mayorkas was formally impeached by the House in February for his handling of the immigration crisis at the southern border.
Outspoken Sen. Mike Lee of Utah told DailyMail.com that Johnson agreed to delay transmitting the articles to ensure the Senate has adequate time to litigate the matter.
Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., agreed, saying Schumer had simply planned to cut the entire impeachment trial into one shorter week, without giving the Senate enough time to discuss the charges the House brought against Mayorkas.
‘Now, originally, Senator Schumer had planned to do this on a Thursday when everyone is trying to get back to their district. “Isn’t it special?” he said at a press conference on Tuesday.
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, also took issue with Democratic leader Chuck Schumer’s anticipated plan to quickly overturn the Senate impeachment trial.
“Chuck Schumer intends to destroy the impeachment clause of the United States Constitution,” he said.
“And make no mistake, if this precedent is set, it will not be the last time it is used.”
‘This is a crime against the United States. The American people deserve accountability,” Senate Republican Conference Chairman John Barrasso, R-Wyoming, told DailyMail.com.
Conflicted DHS Sec. Alejandro Mayorkas was formally impeached by the House in February for his handling of the immigration crisis at the southern border.
The two articles of impeachment accuse Mayorkas of failing to enforce immigration law and lying to Congress about the status of the U.S.-Mexico border.
Meanwhile, the White House has called the Republican-led impeachment effort a “petty political” move, saying that “history will not look favorably on House Republicans for their blatant act of unconstitutional partisanship.” “.
House Republican Leader Tom Emmer told DailyMail.com that if Senate Democrats throw out Mayorkas’ articles of impeachment before even holding a trial, “they will be defying their constitutional duty to their constituents and betraying to Americans who have suffered the worst border crisis in our history.
“Voters will not forget this dereliction of duty and we will remind them of Senate Schumer’s negligence every day until Election Day.”
Texas National Guard soldiers install a border fence covered with concertina wire near the Rio Grande River on April 2.
Immigrants board a US Customs and Border Protection bus after crossing the US-Mexico border
Mayorkas, however, has broken consecutive years of record high immigration detentions. Arrest records were set in 2021, 2022 and 2023.
Last year alone, more than 2.4 million migrants were detained while crossing into the United States, according to Customs and Border Protection data, yet another record.