House to send DHS Secretary Mayorkas' impeachment to Senate on April 10, Speaker Mike Johnson says

WASHINGTON — Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., notified Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., on Thursday that the House will send impeachment articles against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to the upper chamber on April 10.

Johnson and 11 GOP-appointed impeachment managers said in a letter to Schumer that they will present the “duly passed articles of impeachment” that the House passed against Mayorkas when the Senate will be back in session. 

“We urge you to schedule a trial of the matter expeditiously,” the letter to Schumer said. 

Schumer's office said in a statement that the senators would be sworn in as jurors for the trial on April 11, the day after they will receive the articles.

“As we have said previously, after the House impeachment managers present the articles of impeachment to the Senate, Senators will be sworn in as jurors in the trial the next day,” Schumer’s office said. “Senate President Pro Tempore Patty Murray will preside.”

The GOP-controlled House voted to impeach Mayorkas on Feb. 13 for “high crimes and misdemeanors, including his willful and systemic refusal to comply with the law and his breach of the public trust,” the letter said. 

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“The evidence on both charges is clear, comprehensive, and compelling,” they added. Mayorkas is the second Cabinet member to be impeached in U.S. history after William Belknap, President Ulysses S. Grant’s secretary of war.

They argued that Mayorkas violated U.S. immigration laws and is “responsible for releasing millions of illegal aliens into the interior and creating unlawful mass-parole programs.” The lawmakers also accused the DHS secretary of lying to Congress and the public “about the scope of the crisis and his role in it.” 

Referring to the migrant situation at the U.S.-Mexico border, Johnson and the impeachment managers said Americans “demand a secure border, an end to this crisis, and accountability for those responsible.”

A DHS spokesperson referred NBC News to the statement the department issued after the February vote.

“House Republicans will be remembered by history for trampling on the Constitution for political gain rather than working to solve the serious challenges at our border," the spokesperson, Mia Ehrenberg, said. "While Secretary Mayorkas was helping a group of Republican and Democratic Senators develop bipartisan solutions to strengthen border security and get needed resources for enforcement, House Republicans have wasted months with this baseless, unconstitutional impeachment."

The Democratic-controlled Senate is expected to acquit Mayorkas when it holds a trial on the impeachment articles, which it will be required to do. Convicting him would require two-thirds of the Senate, or 67 senators, which Republicans don’t have. It’s expected that the articles would be quickly dismissed or that the trial will be sent to a special committee that would hear the evidence from the impeachment managers and report it to the full Senate.

After the House impeached Mayorkas, who has led DHS since the beginning of the Biden administration, President Joe Biden denounced Republicans. 

“History will not look kindly on House Republicans for their blatant act of unconstitutional partisanship that has targeted an honorable public servant in order to play petty political games,” he said in a statement. 

The 11 GOP impeachment managers are: Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mark Green, of Tennessee; Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul, of Texas; as well as Reps. Andy Biggs, of Arizona; Clay Higgins, of Louisiana; Ben Cline, of Virginia; Michael Guest, of Mississippi; Andrew R. Garbarino, of New York; August Pfluger, of Texas; Harriet M. Hageman, of Wyoming; Laurel Lee, of Florida; and Marjorie Taylor Greene, of Georgia.

Johnson's appointment of Greene is notable because just as the House was set to depart Washington for a two-week recess earlier this month, the Georgia Republican filed a motion to oust Johnson as speaker.

Greene said she is fed up with his leadership as speaker as he's had to negotiate with Democrats on several must-pass bills, including measures to prevent government shutdowns. It's unclear whether the House will take action on the motion.