Washington DC, United States

The US Senate on Wednesday (April 17) quickly dismissed two articles of impeachment against Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, calling them "unconstitutional."

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The trial brought to an end a months-long plan to take action against the secretary for the way he is handling the southern border.

The trial against top border security official Mayorkas, who has been a target of Republican criticism over the way he is handling southern border and immigration policy, continued for only three hours after senators were sworn in as jurors.

In the Senate, a 51-member Democratic majority voted to dismiss the two charges as unconstitutional, rejecting Republican members' objections. 

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Also Read: Meet the four Republicans who rescued Alejandro Mayorkas from impeachment

The Senate passed a motion in which it declared the first impeachment article, which accused Mayorkas of not being able to enforce immigration laws, “does not allege conduct that rises to the level of a high crime or misdemeanour” and “is therefore unconstitutional.” 

In the Senate, 51 people voted to reject the impeachment charges, as Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, voted “present.” After this, the Senate then voted to end the trial "sine die," which means for good in, less than 3 1/2 hours after it started.

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"Once and for all, the Senate has rightly voted down this baseless impeachment that even conservative legal scholars said was unconstitutional," said Ian Sams, a White House spokesperson.

“President Biden and Secretary Mayorkas will continue doing their jobs to keep America safe and pursue actual solutions at the border, and Congressional Republicans should join them, instead of wasting time on baseless political stunts while killing real bipartisan border security reforms," he added. 

Mayorkas becomes second Cabinet secretary to face impeachment in US history

In the history of the United States, Mayorkas became the second Cabinet secretary to face impeachment when he was charged with "willful and systemic refusal to comply with the law" and a "breach of public trust" by the House in February. 

The impeachment effort was strongly opposed by the Democrats who called it a political stunt and said that the allegations included a policy disagreement which fell short of the constitutional threshold for impeachment.

Watch: US: President Biden's immigration Chief Alejandro Mayorkas impeached over border crisis

"We felt very strongly that we had to set a precedent that impeachment should never be used to settle policy disagreements," said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, on Wednesday evening (April 17). 

"If we allowed that to happen, it would set a disastrous precedent for Congress — could throw our system of checks and balances into cycles of chaos," he added. 

The Senate, under the Constitution, is responsible for conducting a trial to determine if impeached officials are guilty and need to be removed from office.

(With inputs from agencies)