WASHINGTON – Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, today joined more than 40 of his Republican colleagues in calling on Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) to allow the Senate to hold a full and fair trial over the House of Representatives’ articles of impeachment against Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. 

Kennedy introduced a resolution on the floor this week to give the Senate the procedural tools it needs to conduct a full and fair trial over the charges against Mayorkas.

Senate Democrats blocked the resolution, indicating that they intend to break centuries of precedent by dismissing or tabling the House’s impeachment charges against Mayorkas.

“Encounters in fiscal year 2023 increased a startling 440% over fiscal year 2020. The border crisis under Secretary Mayorkas has become a nightmare for the American people,” the senators wrote. 

“The House of Representatives has considered this evidence and impeached Secretary Mayorkas. Our constitutional duty requires the Senate to hold a trial. In every previous congressional impeachment of the past 227 years, Congress has been faithful to the process set out by the framers . . . Never before has the Senate abandoned this duty, even when certain members believed the basis for impeachment was tenuous at best,” they continued.

“In the face of the disaster that mounts daily at our southern border, and in communities across America, the House of Representatives has formally accused Alejandro Mayorkas of demeaning his office. The American people deserve to hear the evidence through a Senate trial in the Court of Impeachment,” the senators concluded.

Full text of the letter is available here.