entries visit our website at of homeland security secretaryil alejandro mayorkas set for this wednesday. when house impeachment managers were formally deliver the articles of impeachment to the city. which charges a sector with willful andm refuse refuo comply with the law aach of p trust for his handling of the u.s. southern border. a full trial within proceed on the senate floor but it's also possible that senators could vote to either dismiss the charges in italy or refer the matter to theal committee. watch as the process unfolds live onn2, c-span or for you have or online at c-span.org. >> madam president, as you all know too much ago the house of representatives impeached homeland security secretary

alejandro mayorkas who is with the department of homeland security since the beginning of the biden administration. for three years secretary mayorkas has overseen the record-breaking crisis at the southern border. during that time customs and border protection have logged more than 7.4 million migrant encounters, more than to make previous administrations combined. and that was over a period of 12 years. in three years the biden administration has accomplished what took 12 years for the obama and trump administration. law enforcement focus response on migrant crossing has caused security missions including drug interdiction to take a hit, staffing shortage have led the agency to temporarily close international bridges imports which it had a severe and

negative impact on texase border communities.ex and cities across the country including those located thousands of miles from the border are being crushed the weight of caring for migrants. well, that's hardly a positive reflection on secretary mayorkas whose tenure as dhs secretary. throughout the secretaries of tenure, rather than acknowledge the reality and double down endeavors to deal with it, he essentially tried to gloss over or ignore it. the american people t have watcd as he is repeatedly downplayed the severity of the border crisis using watered-down language like it's a challenge, or situation. they are disputed his claims that the board is secure as they saw footage of migrants walking

virtually unimpeded across the border and filling shelter to capacity and beyond. the american people have raised their eyebrows as you try to blame congress for the crisis, even though there are no new laws in effect, or no less laws in effect than they were during the trump administration. certainly nothing that congress has done or did not do which have prompted dramatics spike in illegal immigration. the truth is secretary mayorkas is bad at his job. but that's not news to anyone. but incompetence by itself is not an impeachable offense. we've had a number of in-depth cabinet secretaries about our country's history who ended their career without the stain

of impeachment. well, despite what some of our democratic colleagues have claimed, secretary mayorkas was not impeached because he is unpopular or just because he's incompetent. he was impeached for two serious offenses, in myea opinion, the first of which is his willful and systematic refusal to enforce our immigration laws. secretary mayorkas has consistently defied the laws that congress has passed and which have been signed into law by the president of the united states. he's defied the law and the will of congress by ignoring detention mandates. he said before the u.s. supreme court, his lawyer said the word shall detain our permissive. emily means may. earlier this year he told border

patrol agents in eagle pass, texas, that the current release rate for migrants caught crossing the border illegally was above 85%. so you had a 15% chance of not being detained, even if you were caught. apparently he's proud of that. secretary mayorkas has made catch and release the de facto policy of the united states government, which is in direct contravention of our immigration laws. and we can't ignore the secretaries unprecedented abuse of a process known as parole. parole was designed to grant temporary entry to poor nationals in rare and dire circumstances such as someone experiencing a medical emergency at a port of entry, or donating a kidney or being a witness at it drop it was never designed to

be used categorically or more than in a case-by-case basis. congress has made clear that parole is a tender for urgent circumstances, and should be only granted an extraordinary individual cases. the secretary violin that law, , too, and is used parole to waive broad classes of migrants into the united states. in less than two years the biden administration has used this case-by-case authority to grant parole for more than 1.6 million migrants. that's in clear and blatant violation of the law. .. apparently. the secretary's failures, though, extend far beyond policy decisions. as i noted, he was impeached for two offenses, the second of

which is breaching the public trust. the american people have watched as secretary mayorkas went on cable news programs or >> testifying under oath before congressional committees repeatedly proclaiming that the border was secure. it was clearly a lie. it doesn't take an immigration policy expert to see his claim has no basis in reality. day after day the american people have seen footage that shows how insecure america's southern border is. in the roughly 15,000 migrants who set up camp in del rio texas a few years ago to the hundreds of migrants who rushed texas national guardsmen in el paso last month, there's been no shortage of evidence about our insecure border.

well, it's not just the misleading and false statements on cable news networks on more than one occasion, secretary mayorkas lied under oath to congress. he told members of congress the border was secure when clearly it was anything but. the united states will be dealing with the consequences of this crisis for years, maybe even decades. and secretary mayorkas must be held accountable. the house of representatives was completely correct to impeach secretary mayorkas and now the senate has a duty under the constitution to hold a trial. unfortunately, this has become a familiar process for a majority of our senate colleagues, both 2019 and 2021, the democratic-controlled house

impeached president trump. at the time my republican colleagues and i criticized the motivation and process behind these impeachment inquiries, but those concerns didn't impact the process on the senate floor. to cite our views about the actions, the senate carried out our constitutional duty to convene a court of impeachment. in both cases senators were sworn as jurors, we listened patiently to both sides presented as they presented their arguments, in the end we had a fair guilty or not guilty vote. prior to the impeachment of secretary mayorkas the house had sent impeachment to the senate 21 times and the senate has held a full trial in all but four instances. in three cases, all of whom were federal judges, the person resigned before the senate

could vote to convict or acquit. and in the final case, the impeached senator was expelled from this chamber before his trial. there has never ever in the u.s. history been a case in which the senate dismissed or tabled impeachment articles and moved on. not once. unfortunately, if reports in the news are correct, that's likely to change this week. the house is expected to transmit the articles of impeachment this wednesday. senators haven't received direct guidance, but according to the press, the majority leader is expected to take the completely unprecedented steps of voting to table the impeachment articles and eliminate a trial entirely in violation of the constitution. as i said, this would be the first time in our nation's

history that the senate failed to do its duty to consider evidence, hear witnesses, and allow senators to vote guilty or not guilty. this would be a dangerous precedent to set. it would give future united states carte blanche to dispense with serious charges against our nation's most senior officials. what goes around comes around. if secretary mayorkas' impeachment articles are tabled, that will become the common practice in the future. impeachment is one of the most solemn features in our democracy and the majority here must not brush these articles under the rug. i can understand why he may want to because the evidence that will be adduced at trial will be damning both for secretary mayorkas and for the

biden administration's policies, which are essentially open border policies. but at least house impeachment managers and secretary mayorkas' defense team deserve the opportunity to present their best case before the senate and the majority leaders should not prevent that from happening. i'd like to remind the majority leader of some words he spoke himself back in 2019. at that point the balance of power in washington was completely inverse of what it is today. we had a republican majority in the senate, a democratic majority in the house and a republican in the white house. after house democrats impeached president trump the majority leader, the senator from new york, came to the senate floor to talk about the process he would like to see in a republican-led senate. he said quote, to my republican

colleagues our message is a simple one, democrats want a fair trial that examines the relevant facts. the message from leader mcconnell at the moment is that he has no intention of conducting a fair trial, no intention of acting impartially, no intention of getting the facts, but contrary to what senator schumer predicted the senate went on to hold its responsibility to hold a trial. we spent more than two weeks hearing arguments from both sides so the americans people could judge for themselves before holding a vote at the conclusion of the presentation of the evidence. so, now i would like to echo the senator's statement from a few years ago, but with a few small changes. to my democratic colleagues, our message is a simple one,

republicans want a fair trial that examines the relevant facts. the message from leader schumer at the moment is that he has no intention of conducting a fair trial, no intention of acting impartially and no intention of getting to the facts. it would be completely unprecedented and unjustified for the senate to shirk its constitutional role as a court of impeachment. the house voted to impeach secretary mayorkas in the senate as a duty to hold a trial. the majority leader should perform his duty and should not impede or ignore that constitutional requirement. so i urge the majority leader to take his own advice from 2019 and to give the senate an opportunity to hold a thorough and fair impeachment trial and let the chips fall where they