Republican senator: Mayorkas impeachment effort is 'the dumbest exercise and use of time'

Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-ND) lambasted efforts from House Republicans to impeach Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas on Tuesday, reported Huffington Post politics correspondent Igor Bobic.

The Mayorkas impeachment has been spearheaded by House Republicans who claim that he has been derelict in his duties in securing the border, although these lawmakers have been spotty on what laws specifically they are accusing Mayorkas of breaking or not enforcing.

“What's rich to me is the speaker says the [border] bill in the Senate is ... dead on arrival," Cramer told Bobic. "And then they proceed impeaching a cabinet secretary, which is obviously dead on arrival."

Cramer is referring to the bipartisan border package brokered between Sens. Chris Murphy (D-CT), Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ), and James Lankford (R-OK).

This bill would create new requirements to close the border to migrants under certain circumstances, raise the threshold for legal asylum, and expedite removals, in return for increasing visa approvals, providing legal counsel for unaccompanied child migrants, and making it easier for qualifying asylum seekers to get work permits.

Former President Donald Trump, however, has pushed against this deal, leading Republican leadership in the House to vow not to take it up, and some Senate Republicans who supported the bill to backtrack.

This comes as House Republicans also express pessimism about their prospects of mustering the votes to impeach Mayorkas in the first place, let alone getting the votes in the Senate to convict him.