The Senate made history on Wednesday as it voted to dismiss articles of impeachment against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, marking the first time the chamber has exonerated someone without holding a trial or reviewing evidence.
Democrats deemed the two articles against Mr. Mayorkas to be policy differences that fell short of the Constitution’s demand for high crimes and misdemeanors, and acting along party lines they voted to dismiss both articles.
The move saved Mr. Mayorkas — and President Biden — from what could have been days of embarrassing details about the chaos at the southern border and legally iffy policies the administration has used to grapple with the surge of migrants.
Republicans said the dismissal broke with all precedent and dishonored the Senate and the House, which approved the two articles. But Democrats said Republicans were deploying impeachment over mundane “policy differences,” and that required the dismissal.
“This whole impeachment was nothing more than a political show,” said Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer, New York Democrat.
Some Republicans vowed to retaliate against Democrats by bogging down the chamber in procedural hurdles, making it difficult to get much done in a chamber that runs on consent.
“Senator Schumer and Senate Democrats just bulldozed hundreds of years of precedent to shelter one of the worst cabinet members in history,” said Sen. Eric Schmitt, Missouri Republican. “When Joe Biden and the Democrat Party talk about threats to democracy, they need to take a good long look in the mirror.”
Mr. Mayorkas is the first sitting Cabinet member ever to be impeached, and now the first to be cleared in such a fashion.
He was accused of willfully subverting immigration laws by refusing to carry out enforcement laws and breaching the public trust by lying and obstructing Congress.
Senators dismissed the first count on a 51-48 vote with one senator voting present. They voted 51-49 to dismiss the second count.
Mr. Mayorkas made sure to be far from Washington on Wednesday, traveling to New York where he announced a new public relations campaign to raise awareness of online threats to children.
But his department celebrated the Senate action as an exoneration.
“Today’s decision by the Senate to reject House Republicans’ baseless attacks on Secretary Mayorkas proves definitively that there was no evidence or Constitutional grounds to justify impeachment,” said spokesperson Mia Ehrenberg.
The White House also cheered on the Democrats’ maneuvering.
“Once and for all, the Senate has rightly voted down this baseless impeachment that even conservative legal scholars said was unconstitutional,” said Ian Sams, a spokesperson.
The vote — and the impeachment itself — were sideshows to the very real problems at the border, where Mr. Biden has overseen the worst chaos in U.S. history.
Mr. Mayorkas has delivered repeated resets of policy but has shied away from adopting the full get-tough approach that worked for President Trump, delivering the most secure border in decades by 2020.
The border — and several high-profile crimes tied to migrants caught and released on President Biden’s watch — have become significant political liabilities. Mr. Biden is even pondering executive action to revive some Trump-style policies to deal with the mess before November.
At the same time, he has begged Congress to pass legislation, hoping that would spread some of the political blame around.
Sen. Mitt Romney, a Utah Republican who had planned to oppose conviction, chastised Mr. Schumer for failing to respect the House, which approved the articles on a 214-213 vote in February.
“It was a mistake for Senate Democrats to set a new precedent of disposing of the Articles of Impeachment without any evaluation whatsoever,” he said.
Republicans said there have been 22 impeachments and this is the first time the Senate has deemed one unconstitutional.
But Sen. Joe Manchin III, a West Virginia Democrat who voted with fellow Democrats to dismiss the charges, said the real danger was cheapening impeachment.
“I voted to dismiss the articles of impeachment against Secretary Mayorkas to avoid setting the dangerous precedent that this solemn process could be weaponized again against future administration officials to score cheap political points,” he said.
He said neither of the articles of impeachment constituted a crime.
Sen. John Kennedy, Louisiana Republican, pointed out that part of the breach of public trust count against Mr. Mayorkas included allegations of lying to Congress, which is a felony.
“What do you have to do to get impeached now,” Mr. Kennedy said.
Some Republicans argued the Constitution’s impeachment standard doesn’t even require actual crimes. They pointed to a Supreme Court case last year where several justices said impeachment is a valid tool for removing an official who refuses to carry out laws entrusted to him.
Many constitutional scholars disagreed with that assertion, saying the case against Mr. Mayorkas was too weak.
Mr. Mayorkas’s impeachment is the third in the last five years, following two impeachments of Mr. Trump. He was acquitted on both tries.
Ending impeachment is unlikely to cool GOP anger at Mr. Mayorkas, who more than any other Cabinet official irks Republicans on Capitol Hill.
Mr. Mayorkas is scheduled to be back before lawmakers on Thursday to testify to the Senate about his fiscal year 2025 budget request.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
• Ramsey Touchberry can be reached at rtouchberry@washingtontimes.com.