I'm not a Democrat. I have no political affiliation, but Alejandro Mayorkas is. He is the first Cuban political refugee and Latino immigrant nominated to become the next Secretary of Homeland Security.
According to The Marshall Project, The new face of the Department of Homeland Security left Castro and entered The Cabinet. Alejandro Mayorkas, a Cuban immigrant who made his bones as an official during the Obama administration, has been tapped to join the Biden administration as secretary, a vital role at a critical time. BUZZFEED NEWS Once the youngest U.S. Attorney in the country, Mayorkas would be the first Latino to serve in that Cabinet post. LOS ANGELES TIMES More: Biden on Monday also announced he will nominate Avril Haines to become his director of national intelligence. She would be the first woman to have that job. THE NEW YORK TIMES
Señor Mayorkas has a distinguished 30-year career as a law enforcement official and a nationally-recognized private attorney. He served as the Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in the Obama-Biden Administration from 2013 to 2016, and as the Director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services from 2009 to 2013.
During his tenure at #DHS, he led with implementing #DACA, negotiated cybersecurity and homeland security agreements with foreign governments, led the Department’s response to Ebola and Zika, helped build and administer the Blue Campaign to combat human trafficking, and developed an emergency relief program for orphaned youth following the tragic January 2010 earthquake in Haiti. Mayorkas also created the Fraud Detection and National Security Directorate to better ensure the integrity of the legal immigration system.
Mayorkas began his government service in the Department of Justice, where he served as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Central District of California, specializing in the prosecution of white-collar crime. After nearly nine years as a federal prosecutor, he became the youngest United States Attorney in the nation, overseeing prosecutions of national significance, including the investigation and prosecution of financial fraud, violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, public corruption, violent crime, cybercrime, environmental crime, international money laundering, and securities fraud.
Mayorkas has also led a distinguished legal career in the private sector, at O’Melveny & Myers and most recently WilmerHale, where he has specialized in strategic counseling and crisis management. He serves several non-profit organizations focused on providing legal services to the poor, refugee resettlement, and education for underprivileged youth.
Just like me, Mayorkas was born in Habana, Cuba, and was the highest-ranking Cuban American to serve in the Obama-Biden Administration, but I was not the highest-ranking Cuban to serve George HW Bush. Mayorkas received his bachelor’s degree with distinction from the University of California at Berkeley and a law degree from Loyola Law School.
