House Delivers Impeachment Articles Against Mayorkas, Calling for a Trial

The House barely approved the articles in February over unanimous Democratic opposition, after they were initially defeated because not enough Republicans were present in the closely divided chamber to push them through. Since then, G.O.P. leaders have delayed sending them to the Senate, toiling to find the right moment to begin a proceeding that is all but certain to result in their effort to remove Mr. Mayorkas failing.

A two-thirds majority would be needed to convict him in the Senate, an unachievable threshold given that Democrats are solidly opposed.

Senior Senate Republicans and Democrats were negotiating on Tuesday over how to structure the trial, which is to formally commence on Wednesday afternoon when senators are sworn in as jurors. They were discussing allowing Republicans to debate and offer a series of procedural objections on Wednesday before Mr. Schumer moved to dismiss the two charges. But such an agreement would require all members to go along, even those dead set on a trial, and it was not clear whether Republicans would seek to prolong the proceedings.

“Impeachment should never be used to settle a policy disagreement,” Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and the majority leader, said on Tuesday before the charges were transmitted. “Talk about awful precedents. This would set an awful precedent for Congress. Every time there’s a policy disagreement in the House, they send it over here and tie the Senate in knots to do an impeachment trial? That’s absurd. That’s an abuse of the process. That is more chaos.”

At a news conference after the articles were delivered, Republicans from both chambers dared Democrats to allow a trial that would highlight the issues affecting the border.