US Senate Rejects Bid to Oust Homeland Chief

AFP/APP

Washington:The US Senate has rejected a Republican effort to remove Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, defusing an impeachment battle that had become closely intertwined with the broader political fight over immigration ahead of November’s presidential election.

The Democratic-controlled Senate dismissed the impeachment charges against Mayorkas on Wednesday, voting along party lines to reject the proceedings as unconstitutional.

Mayorkas, 64, became the first US cabinet secretary in nearly 150 years to face impeachment when the Republican-controlled House of Representatives approved charges against him in February.

Republicans accused the secretary of deliberately failing to enforce immigration laws and of breaching the public trust as record numbers of migrants crossed the US-Mexico border.

The dispute has become a major political weapon for Republicans, who are seeking to make border security and illegal immigration central issues in the November election. Former President Donald Trump, the likely Republican presidential nominee, has repeatedly criticised the Biden administration’s immigration policies.

The Senate action effectively ended the impeachment attempt before lawmakers could hold a full trial. Democrats argued that Republicans were using the constitutional impeachment process to settle a policy disagreement rather than address conduct that meets the constitutional threshold for removal.

White House spokesman Ian Sams welcomed the Senate decision, describing the impeachment effort as baseless and saying President Joe Biden and Mayorkas would continue working on border security.

Republicans, however, have maintained that Mayorkas bears responsibility for what they describe as a crisis at the southern border. The number of migrant apprehensions reached a record level in December, when authorities recorded around 10,000 encounters per day.

The impeachment fight has also exposed divisions over a bipartisan Senate proposal aimed at tightening asylum and border policies. House Republicans opposed the deal after Trump and other Republicans criticised it, arguing that it did not go far enough.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer had urged lawmakers to dismiss the charges quickly, warning that using impeachment for policy disputes could weaken the process for cases involving genuine misconduct.

Removing Mayorkas would have required 67 votes in the 100-member Senate, a threshold that was virtually impossible to reach given the Democratic majority.

The failed impeachment nevertheless gives Republicans another opportunity to keep immigration at the centre of the election campaign, while Democrats are likely to portray the episode as evidence that Republicans are prioritising political confrontation over bipartisan border reforms.

The House’s action against Mayorkas was only the second impeachment of a US cabinet secretary in history. The first involved Secretary of War William Belknap in 1876 and centred on allegations of corruption.