The US Senate has voted along party lines to adjourn the impeachment trial of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, ending the Republican-driven efforts to take down the Joe Biden administration’s top border security official.
By a vote of 51-49, the upper chamber on Wednesday adjourned the impeachment trial after the two articles against Mayorkas fell on constitutional points of order, as Democrats argued they did not rise to the level of “high crimes and misdemeanours”, Xinhua news agency reported.
Following the adjournment, Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, who will step down in November, criticized the precedent set, saying it is not a proud day for the Senate.
In February, the Republican-held House of Representatives narrowly voted to impeach Mayorkas, making him the first cabinet member to be impeached in nearly 150 years.
Mayorkas was impeached for “willful and systemic refusal to comply with the law” in enforcing border policy and for breaching public trust.
Republicans blame the influx of immigrants on “dereliction of duty” by Mayorkas and say that the Homeland Security Secretary needs to step down because of it. They have frequently berated Mayorkas at hearings the House Homeland Security Committee has held on the border crisis since last year.
Both the Department of Homeland Security and congressional Democrats, however, have dismissed the endeavours to impeach Mayorkas as politically driven manoeuvres.
Calling the impeachment effort “bad politics and bad policy,” Tom McClintock, one of the three House Republicans who voted against the impeachment, stressed earlier that House Republicans were attempting to overstep boundaries by advocating for Mayorkas’ removal from office for implementing President Joe Biden’s border policies.
House Representative Ken Buck from Colorado, who also voted against the impeachment, recently announced his departure, telling CNN it was the “worst year of the nine years and three months that I’ve been in Congress.”