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STORY: The historic impeachment vote against President Joe Biden's top border official Alejandro Mayorkas is over. The Democratic-majority Senate swiftly ended the bid from House Republicans, launched months ago and rejected both of the House’s articles of impeachment on Wednesday. This was only the second time in history the House tried to impeach a member of a president's cabinet since 1876. House Republicans accused Mayorkas of not enforcing U.S. border laws and lying to Congress, with illegal immigration hitting record levels since Biden took office in 2021. The dismissal of those charges was engineered by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, who rejected the House case against Mayorkas. “I raise a point of order that Impeachment Article One does not allege conduct that rises to the level of a high crime or misdemeanor as required under article two, section four of the United States Constitution, and is therefore unconstitutional.” By a vote of 51-48, the Senate threw out the first charge against Mayorkas, and Schumer dismissed the second charge that Mayorkas lied to Congress. Republican senators, such as Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, protested Schumer's move and insisted on a full-blown trial. “We've set a very unfortunate precedent here, which means that the Senate can ignore, in effect, the House's impeachment. And by doing what we just did, we have, in effect, ignored the directions of the House, which were to have a trial. No evidence, no procedure. This is a day. It's not a proud day in the history of the Senate.” Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson said he was “deeply disappointed”. Immigration is a top concern for Republicans in the run-up to this year’s presidential elections. Mayorkas has denied wrongdoing, while the White House and congressional Democrats blasted the impeachment as a misuse of powers. White House spokesperson Ian Sams said in a statement after the vote: “President Biden and Secretary Mayorkas will continue doing their jobs to keep America safe and pursue actual solutions at the border, and Congressional Republicans should join them instead of wasting time on baseless political stunts while killing real bipartisan border security reforms.” That was referring to Trump earlier this year helping kill a bipartisan Senate deal that would have imposed tough new limits on immigration.
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