Texas Republicans decry Senate decision to kill Mayorkas impeachment without a trial

WASHINGTON — Texas Republicans on Wednesday denounced the U.S. Senate’s quick rejection of impeachment articles against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas without holding a trial to hear the case against him.

“I don’t know that there has been a more shameful day in the United States Senate than today,” Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said on the Senate floor afterward.

All 51 senators in the Democratic caucus voted to strike down the two articles as unconstitutional. All Republicans voted the other way, except for U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, who voted “present” on the first article.

It was always a given that the Senate, under Democratic control, was unlikely to convict Mayorkas. But Republicans had hoped a trial would focus public attention on border security and illegal immigration, areas where polling shows they have a political advantage.

Republicans frustrated at the lack of a trial pointed to 21 previous impeachments, with trials held in all but four.

The Senate determined it had no jurisdiction in one impeachment, and three other times the impeached individual was no longer in office, making a trial moot.

Cruz, who has said Mayorkas’ guilt was “indisputable,” was particularly vocal about what he repeatedly described as unprecedented the step of refusing to hold a Senate trial after receiving articles of impeachment.

Cruz said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., wanted to keep the public from hearing the case against Mayorkas.

He pointed to a number of heinous crimes allegedly committed by individuals who entered the country illegally.

“What we are witnessing is evil. It is wrong. That is why the House of Representatives impeached Alejandro Mayorkas — because he has aided and abetted the criminal invasion of this United States,” Cruz said at a recent news conference. “And yet Chuck Schumer and the Democrats don’t want to talk about it.”

The House sent two articles of impeachment to the Senate. One charged Mayorkas with willfully and systematically refusing to uphold federal immigration laws, with “calamitous consequences” for the country.

The other article was based on a breach of public trust and asserted Mayorkas made false statements to Congress, saying the border was secure even as a record level of migrants were entering the country.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., had planned to send the impeachment articles late last week, but Cruz and other Senate Republicans persuaded him to hold off until this week.

They argued it would provide more time to put a spotlight on the issue and build public pressure for a full trial.

Senate Democrats blasted the first impeachment of a Cabinet secretary since 1876 as a partisan exercise and said it did not meet the bar of “high crimes and misdemeanors” laid out in the Constitution.

Schumer called the Mayorkas impeachment “bogus” and the “least legitimate, least substantive and most politicized” in history.

“The hard right wants to exploit the supremely serious matter of impeachment for the sake of cable news hits and content for social media,” Schumer said. “This is an illegitimate and profane abuse of the U.S. Constitution. The framers were clear: impeachment should never be used to settle policy disagreements.”

U.S. Rep. Colin Allred, D-Dallas, who is running against Cruz, voted against Mayorkas’ impeachment in the House.

“Instead of working across the aisle to secure our border and pass the Bipartisan Senate Border Agreement, Ted Cruz is once again putting his own partisan interests ahead of what is best for Texas,” Allred said in a statement Wednesday. “There is a crisis at the border, and I am the only person in this race who is serious about fixing it.”

Cruz has criticized that bipartisan border proposal, saying it would make the crisis worse, in part by normalizing thousands of illegal border crossings per day.

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, has called for removing Mayorkas from office, saying he has repeatedly lied to Congress in asserting the border is secure. In a statement after Wednesday’s votes, Cornyn blamed Mayorkas for the crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border.

“He’s violated the public trust by repeatedly lying under oath to Congress and the American people, and he must be held responsible for his actions,” Cornyn said. “By rejecting the articles of impeachment, Senate Democrats have disregarded their duty to the American people, while setting an unfortunate precedent in order to sweep the Biden administration’s failing border policies under the rug.”

House Republican impeachment managers, including U.S. Reps. Michael McCaul of Austin and August Pfluger of San Angelo, made a ceremonial walk across the Capitol on Tuesday to deliver the articles to the Senate.

McCaul told reporters he was prepared for his role at the trial, which was to highlight statutes Republicans say Mayorkas has flouted.

McCaul defended as worthwhile the months House Republicans poured into gathering evidence and making arguments for impeachment.

“We take that material, make the case to the American people, and let them decide in this election cycle,” McCaul said.