Alejandro Mayorkas: Senate votes to dismiss impeachment charges

The US Senate has voted to kill impeachment charges against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Majorkas, sparing him a trial in the chamber.

It was the first time in almost 150 years, and only the second time in US history, the Senate had considered the impeachment of a cabinet secretary.

If two-thirds of the chamber had approved, Mr Mayorkas would have been removed from office.

He was accused of refusing to enforce immigration law.

Mr Mayorkas was also charged by the US House of Representatives with breaching "the public trust" by making false statements during congressional testimony.

In near-party line votes on Wednesday, senators dismissed the two articles of impeachment filed by the House two months ago.

The Department of Homeland Security welcomed the result.

The agency's statement said the vote to dismiss "proves definitively that there was no evidence or Constitutional grounds to justify impeachment".

Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer had proposed a process by which Republicans would be allowed to make speeches and offer procedural motions before Democrats would forge ahead with a vote to dismiss the charges.

When Republicans objected, demanding a full trial on the merits of the Mayorkas case, Mr Schumer, a New York Democrat, moved to force a vote that effectively dismissed the first impeachment charge.

"We gave your side an opportunity," Mr Schumer said. "Your side objected. We are moving forward."

The Republicans made several unsuccessful attempts to delay the vote, which were blocked by the 51 Democrats in the chamber.

In the end, all Democrats voted to dismiss the first impeachment charge.

All but one of the 49 Republicans objected, with Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski abstaining.

The process repeated itself with the second impeachment charge, although Ms Murkowski joined her Republican colleagues.

The chamber then voted 51-49 to formally end the impeachment trial proceedings less than four hours after the 100 senators took the oath to serve as jurors.

Republicans had hoped to use the impeachment trial to call attention to what they have characterised as the failings of the Biden administration's immigration policy and the surge of undocumented migrants who have crossed the US-Mexico border in recent years.

They expressed outrage at Mr Schumer's quick move to end the Senate's part in the constitutional impeachment process in only a matter of hours.

They said it broke with tradition and set a bad precedent for future impeachment proceedings.

"If the Senate held a full impeachment trial, the Border crisis evidence would gut the Biden administration like a fish," Republican Senator John Kennedy posted on social media before the vote.

"Senator Schumer won't even let the House make its case, no matter how much it blows up the Senate."

Former US President Donald Trump was impeached by the Democratic-controlled House of Representative twice during his presidency.

Both times he was acquitted by the Senate after full trials.

Senate Republicans had attempted to dismiss the charges against Mr Trump before his first impeachment trial - the same tactic used by Mr Schumer on Wednesday - but their efforts were unsuccessful.

Democrats, for their part, said that the Republican-controlled House, which impeached Mr Mayorkas in February by a one-vote margin after a previous attempted failed, was abusing the impeachment process.

"This is the least legitimate, least substantive and most politicised impeachment trial ever in the history of the United States," Mr Schumer said.

"Impeachment should never be used to settle policy disagreements."

Public opinion polls show that immigration is one of the top issues concerning American voters in advance of November's presidential and congressional elections.

Earlier this year, Democrats and Republicans in the Senate had negotiated a compromise package to reform immigration law and provide more funds for border security.

The effort failed, however, after Mr Trump and conservative Republicans argued the legislation did not go far enough and was designed to help Democrats defuse the matter as a campaign issue.

Republicans are sure to cite the decision by Democrats not to allow a full impeachment trial as evidence that the party does not want to address immigration.

They may use it on the campaign trail, particularly against Democratic senators running for re-election in more conservative-leaning states.

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