Alejandro Mayorkas: Nominee Currently: Chad Wolf (acting)
Under President Trump, the Department of Homeland Security’s focus shifted notably from counterterrorism to immigration and border enforcement. Trump turned the nation’s third-largest federal entity into a powerful tool of domestic policy and electoral politics, using DHS to carry out a wide-ranging immigration crackdown and quell street protests in American cities.
Created after the Sept. 11 attacks to reassure the American public and project stability, DHS went through unprecedented leadership turmoil under Trump, with five secretaries in four years. Biden is expected to try to stabilize the department by returning its focus to a broad range of threats, including counterterrorism, cyber threats and the pandemic response.
Alejandro Mayorkas
Former Obama immigration and homeland security official
Currently an attorney at the D.C. law firm WilmerHale, Mayorkas served as director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services during President Obama’s first term, and was promoted to DHS deputy secretary under Jeh Johnson for Obama’s second term. Born in Cuba and raised mostly in Los Angeles, Mayorkas’s experience navigating the politics of immigration enforcement and border security could be an asset to Biden if the issue remains a topic of intense partisan focus. Mayorkas’s nomination could run into trouble over a 2015 report by the DHS inspector general faulting him for inappropriately helping several companies obtain employment visas. Mayorkas refuted those findings. He would be the first Latino and first immigrant to run that department.
Source: Wahington Post Reported by Nick Miroff.
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Alejandro Mayorkas – Wikipedia
2021-01-20 Who is Alejandro Mayorkas, Biden’s Troubling Pick to Lead DHS (right wing media) Given what Pres. Biden and Vice Pres. Kamala Harris repeatedly promised during their campaign and the recent news of their plan to grant amnesty and an eight-year pathway to citizenship more than 11 million illegal aliens, this incoming Secretary will almost certainly face an immigration crisis that will make the surges of 2019 look like child’s play.
The question that should be in every American’s mind is whether Alejandro Mayorkas will act with integrity and honor in following his oath to protect and uphold the Constitution and only propose, accept, and execute immigration policies that put the interests of American workers first while understanding the detrimental implications of continued uncontrolled mass immigration?
After spending nine years as a prosecutor (1989-1998), Mayorkas became the youngest U.S. Attorney in the country under President Bill Clinton in 1998, again explicitly overseeing the prosecution of more white-collar crimes like financial fraud, violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, public corruption, cybercrime, environmental crime, international money laundering, and securities fraud.
In 2009 Mayorkas moved to Obama’s DHS as the director of USCIS with unanimous consent from the Senate. He made his first real national impact in 2012 as the architect of the disastrous Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Executive Order. DACA gave amnesty to hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens residing in the country through deportation protection and work permits but also an indirect “pathway to citizenship” through the practice of “Advance Parole.”
Despite President Trump’s best efforts to dismantle it and expose its illegality and unconstitutionality, the program is still in effect. U.S. District Judge Nicholas Garaufis recently ordered the federal government to post a public notice that it would begin accepting new applications under terms in place under Mr. Obama.
Open-border activists view Mayorkas as the best option to revive and expand the DACA program to its heyday under the Obama administration. Currently, the program is still acting as an amnesty for hundreds of thousands of aliens residing in the US illegally, protecting “dreamers” from deportation and giving them work permits.
2021-01-19 Sen. Hawley moves to block swift confirmation for Biden’s homeland security pick But Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), the focus of deep resentment for challenging Biden’s election and, critics say, helping to incite the violent mob who attacked the Capitol, moved later Tuesday to block the fast-track confirmation process, saying he was dissatisfied with Mayorkas’s responses to questions about the Biden immigration agenda. Hawley is a member of the homeland security committee.
2021-01-19 From Border Wall To Capitol Riot, Homeland Security Nominee Takes Senate Questions
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