On the recordApril 10, 2024
Madam President, I rise today because we really are at a very historic time for this Chamber. Soon, the House of Representatives is expected to send over Articles of Impeachment against a Cabinet officer for only the second time in our Nation's history. This is not routine business; instead, this is a very serious moment. On February 13, the House agreed to Articles of Impeachment against Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas for ``willful and systemic refusal to comply with the law'' and ``breach of public trust.'' This Chamber will soon have a constitutional duty to uphold. I firmly believe that the U.S. Senate must conduct a full impeachment inquiry trial for Secretary Mayorkas. Our Constitution gives the Senate the responsibility and the duty to try all impeachments, and it requires a vote of two-thirds of the Senate present before the Federal officer is convicted. That is a pretty high standard for a constitutional process. For every impeachment in our history, the Senate has held some form of a trial unless the Federal officer has resigned prior to the trial. This time, it should be no different. Under President Biden and Secretary Mayorkas, there have been more than 9.2 million illegal crossings along our country's southern border or, to put it another way, the average monthly encounters have increased 400 percent almost under the Biden-Mayorkas DHS.…





