In 2013-2016, Alejandro Mayorkas served as the first Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security in the Obama administration.
The US Senate confirmed Alejandro Mayorkas as the new Secretary of Homeland Security on Tuesday. At the same time, 57 votes were cast in favor, 43 against.
As expected, in just a couple of hours, Mayorkas will be sworn in by US Vice President Kamala Harris.
The relevant committee of the upper house of Congress (on internal security and government affairs) recommended approving the candidacy of Mayorkas a week ago. Outgoing committee chairman Ron Johnson (Republican, from Wisconsin) spoke out against Mayorkas ‘ confirmation at the time. Yet Republicans have failed to present a united front on the issue. For example, Senator Rob Portman (Republican, Ohio) did not support Johnson’s fellow party member. The Senate in the Congress of the new convocation passed to the Democratic Party of the United States, which is also represented by the current American President Joe Biden. Thus, the confirmation of the candidacy of Mayorkas by the full Senate turned out to be almost a foregone conclusion.
In 2013-2016, Mayorkas served as the first Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security in the Democratic administration led by President Barack Obama. In 2009-2013, he headed the Citizenship and Immigration Services at the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Before that (in 1998-2001), he was the prosecutor of the Central District of California.
Mayorkas is 61 years old. He is considered an American of Cuban descent. He was born in Havana but grew up in the United States, where he was born as an infant with his father and mother. Member of the Democratic Party. Both parents of the new head of the US Department of the Interior, like himself, are Jewish by nationality. His family lost several people due to the extermination of Jews by the Nazis during the Second World War.
