Durbin: Senate Must Uphold The Constitution, Respect The Framers’ Intentions, And Quickly Dispose Of Unjustified Articles Of Impeachment Against Secretary Mayorkas

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“nothing more than an attempt to politicize this solemn constitutional tool to distract from the very real fact that the House Republicans are struggling to govern.

The Senate only has the power to convict, remove, and disqualify officers whose conduct meets the constitutional standard for impeachment. And listen to this standard very closely as spelled out in the Constitution, ‘treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.’ Neither article that we’ve received from the House of Representatives contains any evidence that Secretary Mayorkas has been guilty of any of those specific elements in the Constitution or that he has failed in the exercise of his duties. Instead, the articles of impeachment sent to us by the House of Representatives lay out policy disputes through a regurgitation of Republican talking points on immigration. It is simply not a constitutional crime worthy of impeachment for the current President and Secretary of Homeland Security to implement immigration policies that are entirely within the limits of the law and the discretion of the Executive Branch.

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Despite repeatedly referring to the border as a ‘crisis,’ congressional Republicans’ opposition was based purely on Donald Trump’s insistence that Congress not pass immigration legislation. He wants to use it as a campaign issue in November. He doesn’t want a solution, a bipartisan solution that perhaps Joe Biden would be given some credit for. So, he stopped the whole process and stopped the bipartisanship. This partisan hackery is not lost on me or the American people. Instead of doing their job and working to find legislative solutions to complex, challenging problems, too many Republicans have decided that impeachment of a cabinet official for actually doing his job is a better exercise of time.

Since 1986, the Senate has considered motions to dismiss brought by either the impeached officer or a Senator in six impeachments and has twice dismissed impeachment articles in the past. So, to say this has never been done is just not true. We should follow that example. I urge my colleagues to uphold the Constitution and the intentions of the Framers and quickly dispose of these unjustifiable articles of impeachment.”

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