Biden DHS Pick Has History Of Providing Political Favors, Received No Republican Votes When Nominated By Obama

 

Democrats will have to win both U.S. Senate elections in Georgia in order to get Joe Biden’s pick to lead the Department of Homeland Security confirmed, since the last time this particular person was nominated to a position of power, not a single Republican senator voted to confirm him.Late last month, Biden said he wanted Alejandro Mayorkas to lead DHS, prompting strong criticism from Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR). As The Daily Wire reported at the time, Cotton said Mayorkas was “disqualified” from the position due to his past history of abusing the EB-5 visa program.“He was found by Barack Obama’s inspector general to be guilty of selling green cards to Chinese nationals on behalf of rich Democratic donors,” Cotton said at the time. “Think about that. Selling citizenship to well-connected Chinese nationals on behalf of Democratic Party donors. That is disqualifying…”

Mayorkas released a statement after the Inspector General report saying he disagreed with the findings.

“While I disagree with the Inspector General’s report, I will certainly learn from it and from this process. I appreciate and embrace Secretary Johnson’s decision to create a new protocol to ensure the EB-5 program is free from the reality or perception of improper outside influence,” Mayorkas said.

“As the leader of U.S. Citizenship and Immigrations Services, I had the responsibility to ensure that cases, including the three that are the focus of the report, were decided as the law required and that agency errors were corrected. I fulfilled that responsibility and I also took steps to ensure that my involvement was understood by those around me,” he continued.

In 2013, then-President Barack Obama nominated Mayorkas to serve as Deputy Secretary of DHS. Mayorkas was confirmed in December 2014 without a single Republican voting in favor. Prior to that position, Mayorkas oversaw Citizenship and Immigration Services at DHS between 2009 and 2013.

During his time in power, Mayorkas implemented Obama’s executive order granting amnesty, described by The Federalist’s Chris Bedford as the former president’s “most anti-congressional use of executive power.”

During an interview with PBS several years ago, Mayorkas explained that he wanted to grant amnesty to those of a certain age who arrived in the U.S. illegally, no matter how long they had been in the country.

“Perhaps a greater population of individuals who would qualify in terms of their age. One of the limitations on DACA was one had to be under the age of 31 at the time of application even though one might have been brought to the United States as a two-year-old decades ago and so really the determinative factor should be how old was one when one came to the United States as opposed to how old one is now,” Mayorkas said in the interview.

Mayorkas stands no chance of getting through a Republican-controlled Senate, so why would Biden tap him to lead DHS? Bedford suggested the answer may be Biden’s nod to the left-wing of his party.

“The left wing of the party was promised a partnership in a Biden presidency, with Sen. Bernie Sanders claiming Biden personally told him he will “be the most progressive president since FDR.” So far, they’ve been disappointed, with nominees including a Clinton-mold liberal interventionist to the Department of State, and Janet Yellin (over, say, Elizabeth Warren) to Department of the Treasury,” Bedford wrote. “And if Democrats succeed in Georgia to tie the Senate, a Vice President Kamala Harris can push Mayorkas across the finish line and earn the left a man on the inside. If they lose, the left gets a human sacrifice in their honor. Either way, the left gets a try, although it’s unlikely enough to satiate The Squad.”