The US Senate rejects the articles of impeachment against the Secretary of Homeland Security.

The Senate votes 51-49 to postpone Alejandro Mayorkas's impeachment trial.

Tom Clark | 18th April,2024.

United States Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas

WASHINGTON

On Wednesday, the US Senate rejected two articles of impeachment against Alejandro Mayorkas, the secretary of homeland security. 

By a vote of 51-49, the Senate postponed Mayorkas' impeachment trial.

The US House of Representatives sent the Senate articles of impeachment on Tuesday.

Democratic-controlled House of Representatives charged Mayorkas in February with "high crimes and misdemeanours, including his willful and systemic refusal to comply with the law and his breach of the public trust," making him the first Cabinet secretary to face impeachment in nearly 150 years.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell stated, "It's not a proud day in the history of the Senate," after the vote, claiming the Senate disregarded the House's instructions.

Mike Johnson, the Speaker of the House, stated that "by voting unanimously to bypass their constitutional responsibility, every single Senate Democrat has issued their full endorsement of the Biden administration’s dangerous open border policies."

Together with President Joe Biden, Johnson claimed that Mayorkas "has used nearly every tool at his disposal to engineer the greatest humanitarian and national security catastrophe at our borders in American history" in a statement released in tandem with House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, and Rep. Elise Stefanik.

Impeachment, according to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, should never be used to resolve differences on policy.

"I experienced that intensely. To my memory, this is the first impeachment. If you look at history, none were completed due to differences in policy.

"If we allowed that to happen, it would set a disastrous precedent for Congress and could throw our system of checks and balances into cycles of chaos," he stated to reporters.

The Senate was commended by the White House on Wednesday.

Ian Sams, the White House spokeswoman for oversight and investigations, stated, "Once and for all, the Senate has rightly voted down this baseless impeachment that even conservative legal scholars said was unconstitutional."