Republicans can’t force a Mayorkas impeachment trial, but they’ll try to make it painful for Democrats

Senate Democrats hope to quickly dismiss the House’s articles of impeachment against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas this week and move on to other matters.

But Senate Republicans, demanding a full impeachment trial or the creation of a special impeachment committee, want to make the coming days as politically painful as possible for Mayorkas and his Democratic allies.

A band of conservatives, led by Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, plan to throw up procedural roadblocks, try to delay the issue and put the spotlight on Democrats’ refusal to conduct a trial and hold Mayorkas accountable for what they view as his failure to secure the southern border.

“Senator Schumer is trying to ignore articles of impeachment from the House, tabling them without a vote for the first time in American history,” Lee, a senior member of the Judiciary Committee, said in a statement to NBC News. “But the Constitution requires that we begin trial proceedings, and I will be fighting on the Senate floor to ensure that both Secretary Mayorkas and the entire Congress remain accountable for the current invasion of America’s southern border.”

As lawmakers return from a two-week spring recess, these conservatives say they will take to the Senate floor Monday evening and deliver a series of speeches calling for a full-fledged trial, like the two that then-President Donald Trump faced in 2019 and 2021.

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