Sen. Laphonza Butler (D-Calif.) said, “Republicans would rather stand in the way of solving our challenges than do the hard work of leading our nation. ... We don’t resolve policy disagreements by impeachment. We talk with the American people, get in a room, and do the work. The charged crime here is a farcical substitute for doing the hard work.”

Some experts raised concerns that Democrats’ decision to dismiss the impeachment before hearing evidence, even if the evidence was weak, further trivialized the process for what’s intended as Congress’ greatest power to hold officials accountable.

“A refusal to even consider something like this coming out of the House, it will allow Republicans, should Democrats advance a case of impeachment on their watch down the road, to say, ‘We’re just not even going to consider it, we’re going to follow the practice of Senate Democrats,’” said William Howell, director of the Center for Effective Government and a politics professor at the University of Chicago.

With the trial over, Howell said Republicans could pursue additional congressional oversight — hearings, investigations, and restrictions on discretionary funding for the Department of Homeland Security.

But Mayorkas’ impeachment, he said, illustrates the current struggle in Congress to determine the purpose of government. The impeachment might have ended with a fizzle, he said, but in the background remain questions about the direction of immigration and administrative policy.

“When Republicans lament what is going on in the administrative state, it almost always is the case that their arguments are about overreach,” he said. “There is a certain irony in Republicans coming forward and saying, ‘We’re going to impeach this person … for not doing enough, for not pursuing their legal mission as fully as they ought to.’”

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(Times staff writer Sarah D. Wire contributed to this report.)

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