The Senate trial of the secretary of homeland security, Alejandro Mayorkas, will begin in the last week of February following the House vote to impeach on Tuesday night. The vote’s razor-thin margin, which included a number of GOP defections, coupled with the Democrats controlling the Senate as well as past comments made by Senate Republicans, ensure that Mr. Mayorkas will not be removed from office. 

On Tuesday night, the House voted 214 to 213 to impeach Mr. Mayorkas, making him the first Cabinet secretary to be impeached in more than 150 years. Senator Schumer said in a statement shortly afterward that the Senate would sit for the trial “after the state work period,” which ends on February 23. Senator Murray, who is the Senate president pro tempore, will serve as the presiding judge. 

Speaking after the vote, the author of the impeachment articles, Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, told the Sun that she plans to lay out a “five-phased” case to the Senate during her presentation as one of the impeachment managers. 

“Our committee, led by Chairman Mark Green, has done an incredible job producing a report,” she said. “We’ll be using that report, as well as our articles of impeachment, and all the evidence that we have that the Senate needs to consider.”

When asked how she would convince senators who are opposed to convicting Mr. Mayorkas that he deserves to be removed, Ms. Greene said the lawmakers need to do nothing more than consider their own political positions. 

“Just look at the polls,” she said. “I think Joe Biden should do his damn job and he can shut down our border. … Voters in New York and Chicago and all of our big cities are suffering every day.”

Axios first reported that during the Senate trial Ms. Greene would be one of the impeachment managers, who act as prosecutors to make their case for conviction. She will be joined by the Homeland Security Committee chairman, Mark Greene, as well as other committee members. 

Ms. Greene’s hope for a successful Senate trial, though, has been dashed by the math. With 51 Democratic senators, the upper chamber was never going to convict a cabinet secretary appointed by a Democratic president. 

A number of Republican senators have also told the Sun that they see no merit to the impeachment charges, and considered the prospect of tabling the impeachment articles altogether, meaning the Senate would not even hold a trial. 

Senator Tillis previously told the Sun that the trial would be “a waste of time,” given the numerous policy issues senators are currently dealing with, including a tax bill, a foreign aid package, and a recently defeated border security and immigration reform bill. 

“I think Schumer’s just going to move to table it, which I think makes a lot of sense given that this was never going to go anywhere,” he said at the time. 

Senator Wicker, an ally of Senate Republican leadership, told the Sun that he personally would not vote to table the impeachment trial, which he says would only require a simple majority of senators to be present and voting.