Alejandro Mayorkas impeachment trial: Senators are sworn in as jurors as Democrats try and quickly dismiss charges for Biden's border secretary

Senators were sworn in as jurors in Homeland Security Sec. Alejandro Mayorkas' impeachment trial Wednesday in what is expected to be a quick event.

Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, administered the swearing in of Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., who serves as president pro tempore of the Senate. 

After she was sworn in, Murray began swearing in the rest of the Senate to begin the impeachment process. 

Called in groups of four, Senators rose and walked to the front of the chamber to sign the oath book, confirming their role as jurors in Mayorkas' impeachment.  

Mayorkas is the first Cabinet official to be impeached in nearly 150 years, but the charges against him will be quickly shut down by Democrats because there aren't enough Senate GOP votes to convict him. 

House Republicans voted to impeach Mayorkas in February and just delivered the articles to the upper chamber Tuesday. 

They claim that Mayorkas' handling of border security has been atrocious, saying an estimated nine million illegal immigrants have entered the U.S. since he first took office. 

The secretary has overseen multiple record highs for illegal immigrant apprehensions in 2021, 2022 and 2023.

But Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has claimed Republicans are playing political games with this impeachment and said he would vote to dismiss the charges, meaning his party will surely follow his lead and Mayorkas will keep his job. 

'It is beneath the dignity of the Senate to entertain this nakedly partisan exercise, one that both conservative and liberal legal scholars agree fails to meet the high standard demanded by impeachment,' Schumer declared on the floor Wednesday before the trial. 

'I will seek an agreement for a period of debate time that would allow Republicans to offer a vote on trial resolutions, allow for Republicans to offer points of order and then move to dismiss.'

The Democrat leader's decision to dismiss the charges is sure to infuriate Republicans. 

On Monday, Speaker Johnson signed the articles of impeachment against Mayorkas and said the Senate must hold a full trial. 

'The catastrophe at the southern border is the number one issue for the American people,' Johnson said. 'We must hold those who engineered this crisis to full account.' 

'While it will force him to grapple with the crisis his party and the President have created, Senator Schumer must hold a public trial on Secretary Mayorkas’ impeachment.'

GOP Senators have also been arguing for weeks that it is the upper chamber's duty to hold a full trial on the matter.

They say it is incumbent on them to listen to the case presented by the 11 house impeachment managers who would act as prosecutors in the trial.

More to come.