The Senate voted on Wednesday to dismiss two articles of impeachment against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. This decision prevents a potential lengthy Senate trial, which Republicans had called for to highlight the Biden administration’s record on immigration and border security.
This marks the first time in 225 years that the Senate has voted to immediately dismiss impeachment charges approved by the House, rather than holding a floor trial or referring the matter to a special committee for review.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) argued that a trial was unnecessary, describing the impeachment trial as the “least legitimate, least substantive and most politicized” in U.S. history. He asserted that the charges against Secretary Mayorkas did not meet the high standards of high crimes and misdemeanors.
The Senate dismissed the charges by sustaining two points of order raised by Schumer, asserting that they did not rise to the level of a high crime or misdemeanor as required by the Constitution.
The vote took place amid several attempts by Republicans to delay the dismissal of the charges. However, all these efforts failed on party-line votes. The only defection came from the Republican side when Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) voted “present” on Schumer’s point-of-order objection.
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