Joe Biden Nominates Alejandro Mayorkas to Lead Homeland Security, Condemning Donald Trump’s ‘Chaos, Dysfunction, and Absolute Cruelty’
President-Elect Joe Biden on Tuesday nominated Alejandro Mayorkas to be the first Latino Secretary of Homeland Security, ushering in an end to the “chaos, dysfunction, and absolute cruelty” that President Donald Trump has demonstrated toward immigrants.
Mayorkas, whose family moved to the United States from Cuba in 1960, served as Deputy Secretary at DHS during President Barack Obama’s final three years in office.
“As Secretary of Homeland Security I nominate Alejandro Mayorkas. This is one of the hardest jobs in government – a gigantic agency. The DHS secretary needs to keep us safe from threats at home and from abroad, and it’s a job that plays a critical role to fixing our broken immigration system,” Biden said at a press conference.
Biden spared no mercy for Trump and his horrific immigration policies, which have included ripping familes apart at the Southern border and cramming people into squalid concentration camps. Hundreds of children are still waiting for the government to reunite them with their parents, some of whom were deported.
“After years of chaos, dysfunction, and absolute cruelty at DHS, I am proud to nominate an experienced leader who has been hailed by both Democrats and Republicans,” Biden said of Mayorkas. “Ali as he goes by is a former US attorney, former director of US Citizenship and Immigration Services, and a former DHS deputy secretary.”
Mayorkas, Biden continued, “helped implement DACA, prevented attacks on the homeland, enhanced our cybersecurity, helped communities recover from natural disasters, combated Ebola and Zika, and while DHS affects everyone, given its critical role in immigration matters I’m proud that for the first time ever the department will be led by an immigrant, a Latino, who knows that we are a nation of laws and values.”
The president-elect then wished Mayorkas, who turned 61 on Tuesday, a happy birthday.
“Happy birthday, man. Happy birthday,” Biden beamed. “He’s 21,” Biden joked.
Watch below, courtesy of The Independent:
Mayorkas said following Biden’s remarks that “I will work day in night in the service of our nation and to bring honor to my parents.”
Fifty-seven days until the inauguration.