By Richard Cowan
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Democratic U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on Wednesday is expected to make clear his plan to bury without a trial the Republican House of Representatives’ impeachment of President Joe Biden’s top border official.
The House on Tuesday delivered two articles of impeachment charging Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas with failing to enforce U.S. border laws and lying to Congress amid high levels of illegal immigration.
Mayorkas denies wrongdoing and Democrats have dismissed the matter as a politicized misuse of the impeachment process.
At 1 p.m. (1700 GMT) Wednesday, senators are scheduled to be sworn in as jurors for a Mayorkas trial.
Schumer is expected to short-circuit what he has called an abuse of the Constitution’s impeachment provision over what amounts to policy differences between Republicans and Democrats on border security and immigration, and not illegal actions.
Republicans have prepared an assault on any move to dismiss the charges without a trial. Even with a trial, it is unlikely there are anywhere near enough votes to convict Mayorkas, which would strip him of his job.
“What Senator Schumer is going to do is fatuous, it is fraudulent and it is an insult to the Senate and a disservice to every American citizen,” Republican Senator John Kennedy told reporters on Tuesday.
In an attempt to at least delay a vote on dismissing or simply setting aside the impeachment charges, Republicans were expected to resort to a series of procedural moves that would take time for senators to work their way through.
At some point Democrats are likely to use their 51-49 majority to put an end to the Republican gambit and set a final vote to clear Mayorkas.
The party bickering over impeachment is against the backdrop of Biden’s 2024 re-election campaign against Donald Trump, with immigration one of the central worries on voters’ minds.
Earlier this year, a bipartisan immigration reform bill was floated in the Senate, only to be immediately shot down by Trump. That led to a collapse of support among Republicans for the legislation.
(Reporting by Richard Cowan; Editing by Scott Malone and Stephen Coates)
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