Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) mocked Vice President Kamala Harris Tuesday by asking her to preside over the upcoming impeachment trial of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas — noting that as President Biden’s “border czar,” the veep “should be keenly interested” in finding out whether Mayorkas flouted federal immigration law.
“When President Biden appointed you as the ‘border czar’ in early 2021, he tasked you with ‘stemming the migration to our southern border,” Scott wrote in a letter to Harris, after noting the record-setting numbers of illegal crossers into the US.
“In accepting that appointment, you acknowledged a need ‘to deal with the root causes’ of the flows of illegal immigration across our southern border,” added the Floridian.
“As such, you should be keenly interested in learning whether a high-ranking member of your administration is one of those ‘root causes’ through his willful and persistent refusal to enforce our country’s immigration laws, frustrating the very core function of your role as President Biden’s ‘border czar.’”
The two impeachment articles approved by the House of Representatives last week fault Mayorkas for failing to enforce federal immigration laws, lying to Congress about the US border being “secure” and flouting subpoenas from committees investigating him.
Under the Constitution, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court must preside over Senate impeachment trials of presidents, while either the vice president or Senate president pro tempore is tasked with sitting in on trials for federal judges and Cabinet-level officials.
The House only has to approve impeachment by a majority vote, whereas the Senate must convict by a two-thirds majority.
Senate president pro tempore Patty Murray (D-Wash.) is expected to receive the articles on Tuesday and oversee the Senate trial.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) tapped Murray to preside over the trial — but it remains unclear whether the effort will fail on an initial procedural vote in the Democrat-controlled upper chamber.
“There will absolutely be many who believe his case merits removal from office and will vote accordingly,” a Senate GOP aide previously told The Post. “Since Democrats control the chamber, however, it’s basically certain that the vote will fail — if Schumer allows it to happen in the first place.”
“There has never in American history been an impeachment where the Senate has refused to vote on the matter,” the aide said. “If Schumer kills it procedurally, without a vote, it would be unprecedented.”
Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) took a swipe at House GOP leadership and called the impeachment articles “dead on arrival” — deploying the same term House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and others used to describe Lankford’s now-failed national security bill with border enforcement provisions.
Johnson named 11 GOP impeachment managers to make the case for conviction during a Senate trial: House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mark Green (Tenn.) and Reps. Michael Guest (Miss.), Michael McCaul (Texas), August Pfluger (Texas), Clay Higgins (La.), Ben Cline (Va.), Andy Biggs (Ariz.), Andrew Garbarino (NY), Harriet Hageman (Wyo.), Laurel Lee (Fla.) and Marjorie Taylor Greene (Ga.).
On Feb. 13, House Republicans impeached Mayorkas by a single vote, making him only the second US Cabinet official to receive the rebuke, after Secretary of War William Belknap was impeached for corruption in 1867 and resigned before he could be removed.
Three Republican lawmakers — Reps. Ken Buck (R-Colo.), Tom McClintock (R-Calif.) and Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.) — voted against impeaching Mayorkas, saying that the actions of Biden’s top border enforcement official had not committed “high crimes and misdemeanors” and could lower the standard for subsequent impeachments to policy disputes.
Mia Ehrenberg, a spokeswoman for Mayorkas, said in a statement after the vote that “House Republicans will be remembered by history for trampling on the Constitution for political gain rather than working to solve the serious challenges at our border.”
Every year since Biden took office, the number of southern border crossings has increased — with the highest-ever monthly total recorded in December 2023.
More than 7.2 million have been apprehended along the US-Mexico border during the president’s tenure, according to Customs and Border Protection data, and at least 1.8 million known “gotaways” have evaded arrest while coming into the country.
That has led to a backlog of more than 3 million cases in immigration courts nationwide, as CBP agents have released “higher than 85%” of migrants into the US to await asylum claims and other hearings.
The impeachment resolution, authored by Greene, accused Mayorkas of implementing “catch and release” policies and humanitarian parole “en masse” in violation of the federal Immigration and Nationality Act.
It also alleged that the Homeland Security secretary falsely claimed he had “operational control” of the US border as defined by the Secure Fence Act of 2006.
Recent public polling shows that immigration ranks as the top concern for Americans ahead of the 2024 presidential election.
“Instead of wasting time playing political games and pursuing a baseless impeachment, Senator Rick Scott should explain to the American people why he voted against a bipartisan bill that would help secure the border,” Harris deputy spokesman Ernesto Apreza said.
