Table Of Content
- Once dominant at CBS News before a bitter departure, Dan Rather makes his first return in 18 years
- Stagecoach 2024: How to stream Morgan Wallen, Miranda Lambert and other sets at home
- Editorial: Two misconceptions and a truth about the U.S.-Mexico border
- AP AUDIO: House Republicans send Mayorkas impeachment articles to the Senate, forcing a trial.
Biden has said he is mulling a far-reaching executive action that would dramatically reduce the number of asylum seekers who can cross the southern border. A group of Republican senators are contemplating ways to slow-walk the process, suggesting they will deliver lengthy speeches and raise time-consuming procedural inquiries to keep the attention on immigration, one of Biden’s greatest political vulnerabilities. Constitutional scholars, including conservative legal experts, have said the Republicans’ impeachment case is deeply flawed and fails to meet the high bar of “high crimes and misdemeanors” outlined in the constitution. "If he cares about the Constitution and ending the devastation caused by Biden's border catastrophe, Senator Schumer will quickly schedule a full public trial and hear the arguments put forth by our impeachment managers," Johnson said in a statement.
Once dominant at CBS News before a bitter departure, Dan Rather makes his first return in 18 years
GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham almost sided with the Democrats on the vote to kill the second article of impeachment — before he caught himself, to laughs in the chamber. The pair of votes, which split along partisan lines, swiftly killed a Senate trial that had only just begun, with Democrats and three independents voting to stop the process. The Senate ended the impeachment case against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, bypassing with procedural votes the first attempt by Congress to oust a Cabinet secretary in more than a century and a half. Republicans have accused Mr. Mayorkas of promoting in a series of public appearance a narrative that Border Patrol agents whipped migrants trying to cross the Texas border, though a review of the episode found thatwhipping had not occurred. Republicans have highlighted episodes of the department reassigning federal officials to assist with border processing to charge that Mr. Mayorkas is intentionally leaving the country exposed to danger. Democrats have argued that it is evidence the department needs more resources to hire adequate personnel to deal with the migrant surges.
Stagecoach 2024: How to stream Morgan Wallen, Miranda Lambert and other sets at home
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said the House Republicans’ charges failed to meet “the high standard of high crimes and misdemeanors” and could set a dangerous precedent. After the jurors are sworn in, Senate Republicans are likely to try to raise a series of objections if Schumer calls a vote to dismiss or table, an effort to both protest and delay the move. House impeachment managers — members who act as prosecutors and are appointed by the speaker — previewed some of their arguments at a hearing with Mayorkas on Tuesday morning on President Joe Biden's budget request for the department. But even if an impeachment resolution is approved in the House, winning a two-thirds majority in the Senate to convict Mayorkas has virtually no chance of succeeding.
Editorial: Two misconceptions and a truth about the U.S.-Mexico border
The two sides have also disputed whether Mr. Mayorkas was given adequate opportunity to testify in the panel's impeachment proceedings, which lasted less than a month. The panel never subpoenaed Mr. Mayorkas for his testimony and rescinded an invitation to have him testify in person when the two sides ran into a scheduling dispute. “For the last nearly four years, we’ve seen Secretary Mayorkas willfully cede operational control of our border to drug cartels,” Speaker Mike Johnson said on Tuesday, describing the chaos at the country’s southern border as he urged the Senate to take up the case.
The Senate has dismissed all impeachment charges against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, ending the House Republican push to remove the Cabinet secretary from office over his handling of the U.S.-Mexico border and ending his trial before arguments even began. Democrats impeached Trump twice, once over his dealings with Ukraine and the second time in the days after the Capitol attack. If the Senate were to proceed to an impeachment trial, it would be the third in five years. Democrats impeached former President Donald Trump twice, once over his dealings with Ukraine and a second time in the days after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. As Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican from Louisiana, signed the articles Monday in preparation for sending them across the Capitol, he said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, should convene a trial to "hold those who engineered this crisis to full account." Key committee chairmen are already preparing to hold hearings on the problems at the southern border, which Republicans say could serve as a prelude to an impeachment inquiry against Mayorkas.
AP AUDIO: House Republicans send Mayorkas impeachment articles to the Senate, forcing a trial.
Biden denounces Mayorkas impeachment effort as 'baseless' and 'unconstitutional' - NBC News
Biden denounces Mayorkas impeachment effort as 'baseless' and 'unconstitutional'.
Posted: Mon, 05 Feb 2024 08:00:00 GMT [source]
The indictment quotes from the 2022 appeals court ruling that was eventually challenged before the Supreme Court, which ruled 8 to 1 last year that the states lacked the standing to challenge Mr. Mayorkas's policy. Republicans’ central accusation against Mr. Mayorkas is that he failed to enforce the laws he is charged with implementing. It is an unusual use of the impeachment power, which in the past has been used against presidents or officials who are accused of offenses. Examples include the charge against former President Donald J. Trump for inciting insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021, or those against Mr. Belknap, who was found to have accepted kickbacks, among other corrupt actions. "That should come as no surprise because Republicans' so-called 'investigation' of Secretary Mayorkas has been a remarkably fact-free affair," Rep. Bennie Thompson, the top Democrats on the Homeland Security Committee, said in a statement. "They are abusing Congress' impeachment power to appease their MAGA members, score political points, and deflect Americans' attention from their do-nothing Congress."
Republicans argue that the administration cannot guarantee that migrants, once released,show up again for their court dates or comply with removal orders. There is little argument that Mr. Mayorkas has presided over the unlawful entry into the United States of millions of migrants who have been allowed to stay in the country without authorization. Republicans argue that it does, while many of the conservative legal scholars who have criticized this impeachment say it does not.
Sen. Mitt Romney, a Republican representing Utah, said last week he wasn't sure what he would do if there were a move to dismiss the trial. "I think it's virtually certain that there will not be the conviction of someone when the constitutional test has not been met," he said. Senators will be sworn in Wednesday as jurors, turning the chamber into the court of impeachment.
Democrats have countered by pointing out that the Biden administration has seized more fentanyl than the past administration. And data shows that the bulk of fentanyl is seized at ports of entry, where most migrants cross legally — not between ports of entry, where the bulk of unlawful migration is taking place. Democrats have countered that the casualties are regrettable evidence of the desperation of migrants trying to cross the border and an argument in favor of Mr. Mayorkas's efforts to deal with them humanely. During their brief impeachment proceedings, Republicans on the House Homeland Security Committee featured witness testimony from a mother whose daughter was killed by a migrant who was allowed to enter the United States despite having ties to the Salvadoran gang known as MS-13. The move on Sunday came after House Speaker Mike Johnson said on Friday that the House would vote on whether to impeach Mayorkas "as soon as possible" after the committee advances the articles.
Majority Democrats have said the Republicans' case against Mayorkas doesn't rise to the "high crimes and misdemeanors" laid out as a bar for impeachment in the Constitution, and Schumer likely has enough votes to end the trial immediately if he decides to do so. Fallon said that he introduced impeachment articles to help get “the ball rolling,” but still believes it’s key to show the American public why they believe Mayorkas deserves to be removed from his post. Fallon’s resolution says Mayorkas has “undermined the operational control of our southern border and encouraged illegal immigration,” also contending he lied to Congress that the border was secure. It’s unclear if Republicans, with only a very narrow majority in the House, will push ahead with impeachment if they don’t have enough support from their ranks.
However, Republicans, who are demanding a full Senate trial, are fighting to drag out the process in a bid to shine the spotlight on what they see as Mayorkas’ failure to curtail migrant crossings and secure the southern border. The first of the two articles of impeachment against Mayorkas accuses him of facilitating a "catch and release scheme," arguing that he allowed migrants to be unlawfully released into the U.S. without ensuring processes were in place for deportation. Democrats impeached President Donald Trump twice, once over his dealings with Ukraine and a second time in the days after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.
More than two months after the lower chamber voted to impeach the Cabinet secretary, House impeachment managers walked the articles over to the Senate in a ceremonial process that triggers the start of the Senate's role in the matter. Mayorkas, who did not appear to testify before the impeachment proceedings, put the border crisis squarely on Congress for failing to update immigration laws during a time of global migration. The charges against Mayorkas next go to the Senate for a trial, but neither Democratic nor even some Republican senators have shown interest in the matter and it may be indefinitely shelved to a committee. The Senate is expected to receive the articles of impeachment from the House after returning to session Feb. 26. Johnson argued in a letter to colleagues that Mayorkas has "willfully ignored and actively undermined our nation's immigration laws," saying that the House Homeland Security Committee would advance articles of impeachment against Mayorkas when lawmakers return to Washington this week. The impeachment resolution cited a 2023 decision from the Supreme Court, which ruled that states lacked standing to ask the courts to compel the executive branch to enforce certain immigration laws.
South Dakota Sen. John Thune, the Senate's No. 2 Republican, has said the Senate needs to hold a full trial where it can examine the evidence against Mayorkas and come to a final conclusion. There’s also been talk of holding field hearings at the southern border, while Republicans plan to keep making visits there, as they did in the last Congress. In a statement, a spokeswoman for Mayorkas made clear he has no plans to resign and called on Congress to come together to fix the nation’s immigration system.
Lawmakers are expected to vote on four bills on Saturday — aid for Israel, Ukraine, Taiwan and a forthcoming bill that includes a potential ban on TikTok. But, the final product is expected to be lumped together as one big package that will be sent to the Senate, according to sources familiar. In the House, lawmakers will consider several separate bills that include aid for Israel and Ukraine this weekend.
Three House committees — Oversight, Homeland Security and Judiciary — will soon hold hearings about the influx of migrants and security concerns at the border. “The open border is the number one issue across America in poll after poll and that is exactly why this committee impeached you,” said Marjorie Taylor Greene, the far-right Georgia congresswoman, one of 11 House Republicans tapped to serve as an impeachment manager. "Impeachment should never be used to settle a policy disagreement; that would set a horrible precedent for the Congress," Schumer said in a floor speech Monday. "Nevertheless, the Senate's plan has not changed since last week. We are ready to go whenever the House sends us the articles. We want to address this issue as expeditiously as possible." It kicks off what’s expected to be a very short trial in the upper chamber — one that could wrap up by week’s end.
Democrats say they are necessary crowd control maneuvers to alleviate pressure on Customs and Border Patrol processing centers. The truth invariably gets in the way of this bogus impeachment, but thankfully Republicans must still meet a high bar. But, of course, migrants, drugs and weapons have been illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border over the course of several presidential administrations.
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