yes, we understand the senate democrats have the majority to table this. history will not be forgive this decision. and the american people with their family and safety. come november we the people will speak loudly. the people, the citizens of this great republic, they are the true judges and the final jury. so, please, to my colleagues across the aisle, there is still time to do the right thing, to vote in support of holding secretary mayorkas accountable, the american people will be watching. we must impeach secretary mayorkas for his failure to uphold his oath. if this chamber skirts its responsibility, we shall have every senator who blocked in accountable at the ballot box. thank you, i yield back. >> madam president, a lot of history has unfolded in this

room. the united states senate has been home to some of the most formative debates in our nation's tenure. these are fierce arguments among passionate, intelligent people. it's not all that different from the debates today. the senate has always welcomed the sometimes tense disagreements by respecting the rules and the traditions of the institution. it's how a senator like me, who is a member of a minority party, can stand here and speak freely about the issues that matter to the american people and to the people of louisiana. now, my democratic colleagues in the senate today may be about to make some new history in this room.

apparently they think it's a brave new world and they want to set a dangerous new precedent. for the very first time senate democrats are seeking to table, maybe even dismiss an impeachment of a sitting cabinet official without even holding a trial. they are summoning spirits they won't be able to control. please, my colleagues, don't do it. i fear though that senate democrats are going to try to take the articles of impeachment that our colleagues in the united states house of representatives thoughtfully crafted and passed with a majority vote and toss them into the trash without hearing from either side. they don't want to let the house impeachment managers make

their case. they don't want to let secretary mayorkas make his case. they just want to ignore the house's evidence and merely sweep under the rug and move on and that is wrong. the senate has never in its history tabled an impeachment. never. and the more than 200 years that this body has existed, the house the representatives has impeached an official 21 times and we have never once tabled the impeachment, not once. now senator schumer may also try to dismiss these charges instead of tabling them. but that's never been done before either. if the senate dismisses these charges without a trial, it will be the first time in the senate's long history that it

has dismissed impeachment charges against an official it has jurisdiction over without that official first resigning and that's a fact. i want you to consider this. the united states house of representatives has voted to impeach an official 21 times, only 21 times. in our long history. the united states has only-- the united states senate rather that is only dismised three of those cases, three out of 21. now, why didn't they dismiss them? in two of the cases the impeached official chose to resign instead of facing a trial, as a result, the senate dismissed the charges. in this case, secretary mayorkas has not resigned. in one of those dismissed cases the impeached official was a united states senator. and the senate concluded that the constitution did not give

it jurisdiction to remove a u.s. senator through the impeachment process. here, everyone agrees that the constitution gives congress the power to impeach and remove a sitting cabinet secretary. now, madam president, listen to me carefully on this. the united states senate has the right and the responsibility to hold this trial. yet, senate democrats want to ignore our chamber's history and forfeit our constitutional authority by tabling or dismissing these charges without even considering the evidence. without even considering the evidence. americans need to hear what i'm about to say. even if my democratic colleagues won't listen. let me say it again, a majority

of the duly elected members of the united states house of representatives, who represent all of the communities across america spent months investigating the allegations against secretary mayorkas. they spent months drafting the articles of impeachment and the majority of the house then voted yes to bring two very serious charges. the senate democrats are now treating those articles of impeachment like spam that landed in their inbox. americans, however, are not nearly so sanguine about the border crisis that has brought death, drugs, violence, chaos, criminals and mayhem into their neighborhoods.

the biden administration's border crisis is as unprecedented as the majority leader's move to bury the evidence of who could be to blame here. i, for one, want to hear the house's evidence and so do the american people. the majority leaders' move is unprecedented. it's undemocratic. and i am confident that my democratic colleagues, if they do this, please don't. but if they do it, we'll regret this new precedent when they find themselves in the minority. just as they regretted breaking the precedent for confirming judicial nominees. you see, republicans do not like to break precedent when we're in the majority. we respect the traditions of this chamber because we respect the voters who sent all 100 of

us here. if my democratic colleagues set a new precedent to try silent the rights of the minority party and silence those who elected them, if they do that, the senate democrats will have to own that decision and bear its consequences. now, madam president, i've listened to the lone wing of the democratic party spend the better part of the past decade making passionate speeches how important it is to protect democracy, to uphold the rule of law and they're right. president biden even ran his campaign on the idea of restoring our norms, as he called them, and defending democracy. apparently though the rules of

the lone wing were of the for thee and not for me variety. whenever protecting democracy and upholding the rule of law becomes politically challenging, the wing has ignored the rule of law and the will of the people. isn't that special? their political expedience is in full view today. but it's not the first time that their cynicism has reared its ugly democratic head. i'm sure, madam president, you'll remember, i'll give you just two examples, the wing spent several years promoting a conspiracy that the trump campaign was an arm of the kremlin despite no objective evidence to tie president trump to russia.

democrats and several members of the national security rushed to dismiss information on unt hadar biden's laptop russian misinformation despite not having any objective evidence as we now know to make that claim and those are two of many examples that i could give. secretary mayorkas' impeachment may be the best example of this hypocrisy to date. the same senate democrats who have shouted for years about defending democracy and upholding the rule of law seem ready to disregard serious impeachment charges without so much as a second glance. these senators, if they do that, won't just be silenting the house of representatives, madam president, they'll be silencing the american people.

the american people who want their borders security back. you can pick any poem, any one you want, and you'll find president biden's approval rating on the issue of immigration and border security is on a journey to the center of the earth. a recent associated press poll, for example, found that more than two-thirds of americans, 69% of americans disapprove of how the biden administration is handling border security. i can't imagine that these same americans will approve of democrats' refusal to even hear the evidence that americans see play out in their communities every day. this poll was only surprising if you peaked in high school.

under president biden and secretary mayorkas, the southern border has become an open bleeding wound. it's become a cesspool of miss r misery. drug trafficking, human trafficking, sexual abuse of women, sexual abuse of children, drowning, dehydration, widespread illnesses, death, all have become commonplace. in total, border patrol has encountered illegal immigrants at the southern border more than nine million times since president biden took office. that's four nebraskas. the biden administration has failed to remove 99% of foreign nationals that it has released into this country. the backlog of immigrant court

cases has doubled under the biden administration's watch. these foreign nationals have overwhelmed american cities. instead of investing in american citizens, cities throughout the country, they're raising taxes. they're cutting programs to fund pre-paid debit cards for migrants. american children have to stay home from school because democratic officials turned their classrooms into housing units. democratic leaders in new york city, chicago, denver, houston, los angeles, have begged the biden administration to do something, to curb the flow of unvetted people into their cities. of course, it's not just people flowing illegally over that border, madam president. cartels have flooded the united states with fentanyl over that border, too.

customs and border protection seized nearly 53 pounds of fentanyl from 2021 to 2023. not 53,000 grams, 53,000 pounds. that's enough to kill the entire population of our planet. this poison actually did kill more than 70,000 americans in 2022. it's now the leading cause of death among americans 18 to 40. the biden administration's border policies bring americans nothing but suffering. if you hate america, however, the biden border strategy has been a blessing. cartel smuggling operations saw revenues increase from 500 million dollars in 2012 to $12 billion. that's b, as in billion, in

2022. the policies that president biden and secretary mayorkas have implemented are directly responsible for this disaster at our southern border. at every turn the biden administration has ignored the laws of this land and this congress, and the will of the american people to facilitate their own broken border security policies. now, the house has detailed several examples in their articles of impeachment and we ought to hear their evidence. to start, the law requires that all foreign nationals who are not clearly admissible must be quote, retained for a removal proceedings. instead secretary mayorkas established a catch and release. catch, release, repeat. a catch and release scheme that

incentivized illegals to the country. taking an illegal immigrant who commits a crime or ties to terrorism or both into federal custody. that's the law. yet, secretary mayorkas told his department not to follow that law regarding the, quote, mandatory arrest and detention, closed quote, of criminal aliens. our law also says that law enforcement must detain illegal immigrants, instead secretary mayorkas has paroled them wholesale by the thousands into our country where they could catch a bus or a plane to any unsuspecting community they desired and not only that, secretary mayorkas even gave them the money to do it. secretary mayorkas killed the remain in mexico program. he quashed contracts to build a border wall, he ended the safe

third country agreement that allowed america to work with other countries to find protection for migrants in need. by tabling or dismissing the articles of impeachment without so much as a trial, my senate democratic colleagues will be endorsing the biden administration's lawless approach to the southern border. they will be setting a precedent that the next administration can ignore the laws of congress and the will of the american people, too. impeachment matters, madam president. it's an important check we have on the executive branch. if we have an obligation to take it seriously. we have an obligation to give any charges brought the full trial they deserve. i'm going to have a resolution if i'm allowed to present it, madam president, that will give

the procedures we need to conduct this trial fairly and efficiently and i will be bringing that at the appropriate time. it will be efficient. it will be fair, it will be honest, it won't uproot the longstanding precedent we have given to articles of impeachment in the past. if the majority leader -- if the majority leader and my democratic colleagues table or dismiss these charges and destroy senate precedence, precedence that we've established to conduct full and fair impeachment trials, they will regret it. they will regret it. senate democrats, if they do that will show the world that their proclamations about rule of law and protecting democracy are just tools of their own

political experience and arrogance. senate democrats will let the american people know that they endorse the lawlessness and the misery the biden administration's broken border has brought to this country. i don't think americans' he future should be beholden to the politics, that's why i want the senate to do its job and to hear this evidence. madam president, i yield the floor. >> madam president. >> senator from florida. >> madam president, i wanted to make one thing clear to my democrat colleagues, your attempt to brush secretary mayorkas' impeachment trial under the rug is disgusting and unacceptable. it is truly unprecedented by

senate rules and possibly unconstitutional. the house of representatives adopted two articles of impeachment against secretary mayorkas. let me quote for you. throughout his tenure as secretary of homeland security, alejandro mayorkas has repeatedly violated laws enacted by congress regarding immigration, and border security. in large part because of his unlawful conduct millions of aliens have entered the united states on an and, you know, basis with many unlawfully remaining in the united states. alejandro mayorkas has knowingly made false statements and knowingly obstructed lawful oversight of department of homeland security principally to obfuscate the rules, result of his willful and systemic refusal to comply with the law. now, it is the constitutional duty of the u.s. senate to conduct an impeachment trial to

determine if secretary mayorkas should be removed from office based on those articles of impeachment. i would just stress this again, never in the history of the u.s. senate has such a procedure move been attempted to completely avoid an impeachment trial. senate democrats' is the latest by the left against the democratic process in this institution. senate democrats want to eliminate the filibuster. they want to radically change the u.s. supreme court and now they want to trash the impeachment process, this is a disturbing series of direct attacks on our democratic constitution. my colleagues and i have called on senate leadership r leadership to conduct a thorough trial and personally called on vice-president kamala harris urging her to fulfill her constitutional duty to preside at secretary mayorkas' trial.

her appointment as president biden's quote, border czar only makes her role in the mayorkas impeachment trial more critical. president biden and his administration created a crisis at our southern border. secretary mayorkas a complete puppet for this lawless administration has the audacity to come falsely testify before senate and house committees that the border is secure. not just once, but multiple times, mayorkas has lied under oath in committee that our border is secure. he's lying the american people. he's not taking the action he needs to defend the homeland by securing the border or upholding the law. that's his job and he simply is not doing it. our nation is reeling from the consequences of mayorkas' failures. our nation is a more dangerous place because of secretary mayorkas' failure he's allowing criminals, drugs, terrorists, others into our communities. these are real consequences and

each victim has a name. real americans. here to live their dream are being killed. real american families are being torn apart by vicious crimes and deadly drugs because we have a wide open border. biden and mayorkas refused federal law to secure the border, innocent americans like laken riley are paying the price for his failures. 10 million people, 10 million people have illegally crossed and six million have been let into our country. there have been assaults and murders created by illegal aliens across the country. a photo where a young man was recently killed. the man charged for his death was an illegal alien. i don't get it. i don't understand why my democratic colleagues don't care they don't care about 70,000 people dying from

fentanyl overdose. don't care about vicious crimes. they don't care about terrorist in our country. they are using every power they have to ignore this crisis while innocent americans die and keep congress from holding mayorkas accountable. the proof is not just in this disgraceful effort to dismiss the impeachment trial. let's remember what democrats have voted against. democrats voted against a bill to stop illegal aliens from getting on had a commercial flight with no verifiable i.d. think about that. you have to have an i.d., they don't. democrats voted against deporting illegal aliens who hurt police. the people they're here to take care of us and democrats voted against the laken riley act which simply requires, it's a simple act, requires ice to take illegal aliens into custody before tragdy strikes.

does biden hope that millions of illegal immigrants will vote for them. aallowing illegal immigrants to vote and allowed the census to keep counting illegal aliens because they want sanctuary cities and states to have more electoral votes and representation in congress. not from americans, but from illegal aliens. that's the future democrats want. biden has dismantled, intentionally dismantled every ounce of border security that trump put in place and completely undermined our immigration system and mayorkas has done absolutely nothing to stop it. mayorkas has clearly been derelict in his duties. he's neglected to protect the homeland, his job. he's allowed criminals to come into our country and to each and all of our communities, drugs to flow into our country. when i talk to floridians,

they're terrified, of what who is coming across the border and into our communities. mayorkas may be a puppet from the biden administration, but he's fully responsible and negligent for his job. he either needs to resign or have the full trial we're constitutional obligated to conduct as the american people, through their representatives, voted for. we must have an administration and dh secretary that's willing to secure the border, not ignore failure that is killing our system. madam president, i yield the floor. >> madam president. >> the senator from utah. >> madam president, an invasion is taking place, over eight million people have crossed illegally since mayorkas is

secretary. it's not going away. this lawless influx includes gang members, includes drug traffickers and dangerous individuals from every country in the world, including many thousands of military aged males from china. what could go wrong? in december alone, the department of homeland security reported 302,000 encounters in one month. this is the highest month ever on record. to be clear, secretary mayorkas has the tools to stop the invasion today. he could do it right now if he wanted to. it's almost turn key. it's abracadabra. if he decided to do it, we could have a security border and we would. not only does he have the tools, but he has an obligation and a responsibility, an affirmative duty under the law. the laws of the united states. laws that he agreed that he'd faithfully enforce.

let me say that again to be very clear. just by enforcing the laws currently on the books, he could bring our state of utter lawlessness on the border to a state of order. mayorkas could bring a complete stop to the crisis. he doesn't need legislative action from congress. this isn't the policy disagreement. no, it's a blatant defiance of the laws that are already on the books and have been for years. so, to my colleagues, if you're so confident that the charges against secretary mayorkas are baseless, then why not hold a trial? why try to just sweep this under the rug? you realize, don't you, when you do that, all that does make you look more conscious of what's going on, of what's being done that's so very, very wrong. especially whereas here, it's such a departure from nearly

two and a half centuries of this institution operating faithfully as a court of impeachment. nearly two and a half centuries in which we've had 21 articles of impeachment that were destined for the senate. at least 20 of those arrived. in 18 of those toll of 21 cases during the senate's existence, 18 of those 21 culminated in a trial resulting in a verdict of guilty or not guilty. those other three cases were rendered moot and between the time that the house of representatives adopted the articles of impeachment and the time they were presented over here. they were rendered moot either because of a death or a departure, a new vacancy in the office that had been occupied by the impeached official. so, this isn't just an ordinary act of sweeping it under the

rug. it's an act of sweeping it under the rug in circumstances where sweeping under the rug is not an option. it never has been. we haven't done it. so this isn't just some invisible casper the friendly ghost coming in to get rid of it, they're actively doing it, they're doing it under the full view of the american people. the american people should be really upset by this because article one of the constitution gives the house of representatives the power to impeach and the senate the power to try all impeachments. remember, the senate has only three states of being, exactly three states of being. legislative calendar where we do a lot of our work, where we consider laws, executive calendar, where we do things like confirm presidential nominees and consider treaties or ratification and the third state of being for the senate is as a court of impeachment. we're always in one of those three states of being.

ap yet, we have never operated in that third state of being unless the case has been rendered moot, where the senate doesn't hold the trial as it's required to do under the constitution, culminating in a verdict of guilty or not guilty. now, if you trust that secretary mayorkas didn't authorize millions of individuals to enter illegally, into our country, for swift and pre cursory release, then let's hold a trial. if you're certain that secretary mayorkas hasn't increased the poll factors incentivizing parents across the globe to send 430,000 unaccompanied children, illegally into the united states, in many cases to have them end up in the hands of traffickers, drug traffickers, human sex traffickers and otherwise, then let's hold a trial. if you're confident that secretary mayorkas hasn't

created at least 13 illegal immigration parole programs designed to increase the flow of people into this country, by the hundreds of thousands, then let's hold a trial. if you're so sure that secretary mayorkas and under secretary mayorkas' leadership customs and border protection hasn't dramatically increased-- hasn't decreased its vetting process for allowing chinese immigrants to cross our border, including military aged chinese males, then let's hold a trial. if you believe we haven't seen a dramatic increased in the known terrorists at the border, let's hold a trial. if you're confident that secretary mayorkas hasn't allowed enough fentanyl to flow across the southern border to kill every man, woman and child in this country, this enlet's hold a freaking trial. madam president, these are not victimless crimes.

the tragic case of laken riley, a life cut short by an illegal alien one of the millions that secretary mayorkas has recklessly, intentionally and maliciously allowed to enter our country unchecked, unvetted is a reminder of the human case of this abdication of duty. laken isn't alone, her case represents hundreds of thousands of families across the nature -- across this nation whose lives have been up-ended by the invasion that our leaders allowed to happen. think about that for an a minute. they allowed that to happen not just by negligent, carelessness, inattentiveness: no, no, no, they encouraged it to happen. should secretary mayorkas be found guilty, these are crimes

of the highest order. this sort of thing doesn't happen very often in this country, the sort of thing i hope we'll never have to experience again. the sort of thing that i could otherwise result in a toby keith song, may he rest in peace, the sort of thing that unites americans in surprising way. the american people suspect there's something terribly wrong and they expect us to act. in all previous impeachments sent to the senate, we held a trial. save those rare circumstances where the case is rendered moot by death or vacancy at the office, not the facts present here, we've held a trial and that trial culminated in each and every instance in a verdict of guilt, of guilty or not

guilty, but majority leader chuck schumer now seems to want to take the radical step, the unprecedented step, the lawless step to counter-- the anti-constitutional step of trying to table these articles of impeachment without even letting us examine the evidence, begs the question, what -- what would he do? what would he do? if he were confident, if the majority leader were confident that secretary mayorkas had acted lawfully, honorably in this office, what would he do if he were confident that the american people weren't turning on his party because of this act of lawlessness, this inter

minable by their own border enforcement strategy. this is exactly what it looks like, madam president, when someone is aware that there's a problem and wants to sweep the problem under the rug. there is no rug here. you can't hide this. there's no rug big enough to accommodate that and shame on us if we played into that strategy. so, look, to colleagues on my side of the aisle and on the other. i implore you. i know many of us are institutionalist, whether you're a republican or democrat, no matter how far to the left wing, or the right wing or in between you are, i appeal to your sense that we have an obligation to take seriously our oaths to the constitution, that we have an obligation that must be honored, to look out for the

institutional interests of the senate and the role that it plays in the sacred order created by the united states constitution. when the articles of impeachment arrive, we have a job to do. the constitution and our rules and our precedents make that abundantly clear. to ignore the evidence before us is to betray the trust of those who sent us here. there's no doubt at this point that the invasion at the southern border has inflicted indescribable, incalculatable pain on so many americans who are obligated to figure out who is responsible and hold them accountable, beginning with secretary mayorkas. i urge each of my colleagues to oppose this shameless effort to side step our doing and by so doing subvert the constitutional order. thank you, madam president.

i yield the floor. >> this week is the opening of the impeachment trial of homeland security secretary alejandro mayorkas only the second cabinet member in u.s. history to be impeached by the house. wednesday, house impeachment managers led by homeland security chair green delivers two articles of impeachment to the senate refusing to comply with the immigration laws and trust. and patty murray presides over the trial. senator majority leader mitch mcconnell is expected to vote. go to our video online or at c-span.org. c-span is your unfiltered view of government by these

companies, including cox. >> koolen-de vries syndrome is extremely rare. >> hi. >> friend don't have to be. >> this is joe. >> when you're connected you're not alone. >> cox supports c-span as a public service hey long with these other television providers, giving you a front row seat to democracy. >> we take you live to capitol hill where the senate is about to gavel in. today lawmakers will consider several judicial nominees, including had a district court judge for nebraska. live coverage here on c-span2. ...