House Republicans to present impeachment articles against Alejandro Mayorkas to Senate

House Republicans on Tuesday are expected to formally present their articles of impeachment against Alejandro Mayorkas, the homeland security secretary, to the Senate, part of the party’s attempt to force an election-year showdown with the Biden administration over immigration and border security.

In February, House Republicans bypassed skepticism within their own ranks and unified Democratic opposition to narrowly approve two articles of impeachment against Mayorkas, making him the first sitting cabinet official to be impeached.

Democrats, who control the Senate, have signalled their plans to quickly dispense with the articles, arguing that the politically charged impeachment amounts to little more than a policy dispute with the administration, a far cry from the high bar of “high crimes and misdemeanors” outlined in the constitution. A two-thirds majority is needed to convict Mayorkas, which would be impossible without the support of some Democrats.

Eleven Republican impeachment managers will transmit the articles to the Senate in a ceremonial procession, crossing the rotunda of the US Capitol to inform the Senate they were ready to prosecute the secretary for “willful and systemic refusal” to enforce border policies and a “breach of public trust”.

The House speaker, Mike Johnson, initially delayed the delivery of the articles to focus on funding legislation to avert a government shutdown. Then the transmission was delayed again after Senate Republicans asked for more time to strategize ways to ensure a Senate trial.

Republicans are pressuring Democrats to hold a full trial.

“We call upon you to fulfill your constitutional obligation to hold this trial,” Johnson and the 11 Republican impeachment managers wrote in a letter to the Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer. “The American people demand a secure border, an end to this crisis, and accountability for those responsible. To table articles of impeachment without ever hearing a single argument or reviewing a piece of evidence would be a violation of our constitutional order and an affront to the American people whom we all serve.”

The impeachment managers include the far-right lawmakers Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Andy Biggs of Arizona, as well as the House homeland security chair, Mark Green of Tennessee, whose committee drafted the articles.

Several Republican senators have cast doubt on the House’s impeachment effort, former secretaries of homeland security and several conservative legal scholars have denounced the Republicans’ case against Mayorkas as deeply flawed and warned that it threatens to undermine one of Congress’s most powerful tools for removing officials guilty of “treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors”.

Schumer has said senators would be sworn in the following day after the articles are received, and that Patty Murray, the Senate president pro tempore, a Democrat of Washington, would preside over the chamber for the proceedings.

“The Senate is ready to go, whenever the House is. We want to address the issue as expeditiously as possible,” Schumer said in a floor speech last week, adding: “Impeachment should never be used to settle policy disagreements. That sets an awful precedent.”

A group of Republican senators are contemplating ways to slow-walk the process, suggesting they will deliver lengthy speeches and raise time-consuming procedural inquiries to keep the attention on immigration, one of Biden’s greatest political vulnerabilities ahead of the 2024 election.

Mayorkas, who has denied wrongdoing and retains the support of the president, has become the face of the Biden administration’s struggle to control record migration to the US-Mexico border. Republicans have assailed Biden’s handling of the humanitarian crisis and Donald Trump has again put immigration at the center of his presidential campaign.

An attempt to pass a bipartisan border bill – touted as the most conservative piece of immigration legislation in decades – was derailed by Republicans at the behest of Trump, who did not want Biden to notch a victory on an issue that plays to the former president’s political advantage.

He has also asked Congress to approve requests for more border patrol agents and immigration court judges, but Republicans have refused, saying Biden should use his executive authority to stem the flow of migrants. Biden has said he is mulling a far-reaching executive action that would dramatically reduce the number of asylum seekers who can cross the southern border.