The US Senate voted Wednesday to dismiss two articles of impeachment against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. The US House of Representatives impeached Mayorkas in February over his handling of the migrant situation at the US-Mexico border.

The articles of impeachment asserted that Mayorkas did not comply with his duties under the Immigration and Nationality Act, which the articles allege “significantly contributed to unprecedented levels of illegal entrants, the increased control of the Southwest border by drug cartels, and the imposition of enormous costs on States and localities affected by the influx of aliens.”

The articles claimed that Mayorkas failed to comply with US law and breached public trust in his handling of the US-Mexico border and immigration matters. Specifically, the first article asserted that Mayorkas engaged in a “willful and systematic refusal to comply with the law.” The Senate dismissed this charge by a vote of 51-48 because it was not a high crime or misdemeanor as stipulated in Article II of the US Constitution. The second article of impeachment contended that Mayorkas committed a “breach of the public trust” by knowingly making false statements and obstructing lawful oversight of the Department of Homeland Security “principally to obfuscate the results of his willful and systematic refusal to comply with the law.” The Senate voted 51-49 to dismiss this charge for the same reason.

In response to the denial, Democrat Senator Chuck Schumer stated, “Impeachment should NEVER be used to settle policy disagreements.” He also said, “If the GOP spent a FRACTION of the effort they spent on this meritless impeachment towards working with Democrats on border reform, we might have passed the bipartisan border bill.” On the other hand, Republican Senator Eric Schmitt stated:

Today, Senator Schumer and Senate Democrats just bulldozed hundreds of years of precedent to shelter one of the worst cabinet members in history, Secretary Mayorkas. The Senate is obligated to hold a full impeachment trial, and I fought on the floor to get that full trial. Mayorkas is responsible for the worst crisis at the Southern Border in American history, full stop. Senator Schumer and Senate Democrats diminished the institution of the Senate today and set ablaze the Constitution and long-standing precedent. When Joe Biden and the Democrat Party talk about threats to democracy, they need to take a good long look in the mirror.