Mayor's Office Of Homeland Security And Emergency Preparedness – Homeland Security Secretary nominee Alejandro Mayorkas speaks at the Queen Theater in Wilmington, Del., on Nov. 24. (Carolyn Custer/AP)

The US Senate confirmed Alejandro Mayorkas as secretary of the Department of Homeland Security in a mostly party-line vote on Tuesday, ending the most contentious confirmation process for the Biden Cabinet.

Mayor's Office Of Homeland Security And Emergency Preparedness

Mayorkas (61) is the son of Jewish refugees from Cuba, who goes by the nickname “Ali”. A former federal prosecutor in Los Angeles, Mayorkas served as a top DHS official during the Obama administration and played a key role in creating the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program known as DACA.

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“Mr. “Majorkas’ qualifications are unquestionable: he is a seven-year veteran of DHS and has already been confirmed by this chamber three — three times,” said Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) in a statement before the vote. “Like most of President Biden’s Cabinet nominees, his nomination also makes history: He will be the first Latino and the first immigrant to hold the top job at DHS.”

The Senate voted 56 to 43 to confirm Mayorkas. Six GOP members voted with Democrats: Mitt Romney (Utah), Susan Collins (Maine), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), Rob Portman (Ohio), Shelley Moore Capito (West Virginia) and Dan Sullivan (Alaska).

DHS has not had a Senate-confirmed secretary since April 2019, when President Trump fired Kirstjen Nielsen and allowed the department to go through a period of unprecedented leadership change. Some of the Republican senators who joined Democrats in voting to confirm Mayorkas said they want to see DHS stabilized without further delay.

Democrats tried to expedite a confirmation vote, but they were blocked by Sen. Josh Haley (R-Mo.), who cited a 2015 DHS inspector general’s report that criticized Mayorkas for appearing to favor the well-connected applicants in the investor visa program.

Transcript: Secretary Of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas On

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) cited that report in voting against Mayorkas, accusing him of being an “ethically compromised partisan lawyer.”

“Mr. Mayorkas is all too familiar with the levers of power that control American immigration law. The problem is when he’s elected to pull those levers — and in whose favor,” McConnell said in a statement, accusing Mayorkas of running US Citizenship and Immigration Services as an “unethical factory for Democratic royalty” to during the first term of President Barack Obama.

Democrats rejected Republican calls for Mayorkas to submit additional testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee, arguing that the country’s national security needs a confirmed DHS leader as soon as possible. They noted that Trump’s first DHS secretary, retired Gen. John F. Kelly, was confirmed on Inauguration Day 2017.

The mayor faced a rockier path. During his confirmation hearing, Republican senators repeatedly raised the inspector general’s 2015 report and expressed concern about the Biden administration’s plans to reverse Trump-era border controls and deportation efforts.

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DHS, the nation’s third-largest federal department, is responsible for protecting the nation’s borders and coasts, running its immigration system, protecting federal employees and property, and responding to crises and disasters, among other tasks.

“Mr. Mayorkas is a proven leader who has a track record of protecting the American people from harm,” Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.) said before casting his vote.

Created after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the department had a primary focus on counterterrorism before the Trump era. Trump has made DHS a major instrument of his domestic policy, particularly on the border with Mexico. Mayorkas takes over the department after a period of intense politicization and even some calls to disband the department.

Immigration issues are likely to occupy much of Mayorkas’ attention at DHS. Illegal crossings along the border have been on the rise again in recent months despite pandemic orders restricting legal travel. Biden ordered a halt to construction of Trump’s border wall. Another of Biden’s first measures – a 100-day “pause” on most deportations from within the US – was blocked by a federal judge in Texas.

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Biden planned to issue several executive orders on Tuesday ordering reviews of Trump’s attempts to tighten access to the US asylum system as well as other legal immigration benefits. Biden is also set to announce a task force to reunify children separated from their parents by Trump’s border crackdown. The mayor will lead that task force.

Mayorkas is also expected to help the Biden administration advance an immigration bill that would put millions of people on a path to legal status. Many Republicans denounce Biden’s proposal as “amnesty” and say it will fail like previous attempts to overhaul the country’s immigration system. MIAMI – Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas met with Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniela Levine Cava and Haitian-American and Cuban members. American communities will discuss the Biden administration’s new program for legal access to the United States from several countries on Monday.

The program allows up to 30,000 migrants from Venezuela, Nicaragua, Haiti and Cuba to come to the United States a month to live and work. To qualify, migrants must have a sponsor in the US and undergo screening and vetting.

They will have to pay for their flights to the country and will be eligible to work once they are approved.

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Secretary Mayorkas said 1,700 people have already taken advantage of the program, which will give them two years of parole in the United States.

In addition, more than 800 Nicaraguans, about 2,000 Haitians and more than 4,700 Cubans have been approved for travel. Most people seem to apply from their home country.

South Florida has seen a large increase in migrants from Cuba and Haiti since late last year. The Biden administration hopes the programs will help stem a spike in irregular migration.

“We have seen too much tragedy in the Atlantic oceans. We have seen loss of life, we have seen loved ones lose children and family members. It is not for people to go to sea. “We have provided a legal and safe route for them to come here,” Mayorkas said.

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Florida, along with more than a dozen other states, sued the Department of Homeland Security, calling the new program a violation of federal immigration law and an overreach of executive power.

Mayorkas called the lawsuit “incomprehensible” and said the program is a safe and legal solution to the problem. Security as of February 2, 2021. During the Obama administration, he also served at the Department of Homeland Security, first as Director of United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (2009–2013) and as Deputy Secretary of DHS (2013–2016).

Mayorkas was born in Havana, Cuba. Shortly after the Cuban Revolution, his family fled to Florida and later settled in California. He graduated from UC Berkeley with honors in history and then earned his J.D. at Loyola Marymount University. After law school, Mayorkas served as an Assistant United States Attorney and was appointed United States Attorney for the County of California in Los Angeles during the administrations of Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, where he oversaw high-profile prosecutions. criminal cases.

Mayorkas was a member of Barack Obama’s presidential transition team before taking office in January 2009, where he led the team responsible for the Criminal Division of the US Department of Justice.

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On May 20, 2009, the nomination was accepted by the state; on August 7, 2009, the nomination was confirmed by the state by voice vote.

As Director of USCIS, Mayorkas led United States citizenship through management efficiency and fiscal responsibility and safeguarded the integrity of the immigration system.

He led the U.S. government’s efforts to rescue orphaned children after the January 2010 earthquake in Haiti and spearheaded the advancement of the Victims of Crime Unit that, for the first time, allowed the agency to issue the legal maximum number of visas to victims of crime. crime. .

In 2016, Mayorkas became a partner at the law firm of Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale & Dorr, in their Washington office.

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On November 23, 2020, President-elect Joe Beade announced that he would nominate Mayorkas to be Secretary of Homeland Security in his cabinet. The nomination of the Mayor was received posthumously by the Fraternal Order of the Police

And former secretaries Tom Ridge, Michael Chertoff (who served under George W. Bush), Janet Napolitano and Jay Johnson (under whom Mayorkas worked), who said that Bead “couldn’t have found a more qualified person.”

On February 2, 2021, Mayorkas was confirmed by the state in a 56–43 vote, with substantial Republican opposition to Sate.

When he was one year old, his parts fled with him and his sister to the United States in 1960 as refugees, after the Cuban Revolution. He lived in Miami, Florida, before his family moved to Los Angeles, California, where he was raised until his youth.

Senate Homeland Security Committee Hearing Part 1 Transcript

His father, Charles R. “Nicky” Mayorkas, was born in Cuba. He was a Cuban Jew of Sephardi (from the former Ottoman Empire, present-day Turkey and Greece) and Ashkazi (from Poland) descent. He owned and operated a steel wool factory on the outskirts of Havana.

After three years as a litigation associate in private practice, Mayorkas became an Assistant United States Attorney for the District of Columbia County

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