Alejandro Mayorkas | |
---|---|
7th United States Secretary of Homeland Security | |
Assumed office February 2, 2021 | |
President | Joe Biden |
Deputy | John Tien Kristie Canegallo (acting) |
Preceded by | Kirstjen Nielsen |
6th United States Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security | |
In office December 23, 2013 – October 28, 2016 | |
President | Barack Obama |
Preceded by | Jane Holl Lute |
Succeeded by | Elaine Duke |
Director of United States Citizenship and Immigration Services | |
In office August 12, 2009 – December 23, 2013 | |
President | Barack Obama |
Preceded by | Jonathan Scharfen (acting) |
Succeeded by | Lori Scialabba (acting) |
United States Attorney for the Central District of California | |
In office December 21, 1998 – April 20, 2001 | |
President | Bill Clinton George W. Bush |
Preceded by | Nora Margaret Manella[1] |
Succeeded by | Debra Wong Yang[2] |
Personal details | |
Born | Alejandro Nicholas Mayorkas November 24, 1959 Havana, Cuba |
Political party | Democratic |
Education | University of California, Berkeley (BA) Loyola Marymount University (JD) |
Alejandro Nicholas Mayorkas (born November 24, 1959) is a Cuban-American lawyer and politician. Mayorkas is the 7th and current United States Secretary of Homeland Security since February 2, 2021 during the Joe Biden cabinet. He was the Deputy Secretary of the United States Department of Homeland Security from December 23, 2013 to October 31, 2016.[3]
Alejandro Nicholas Mayorkas[4] was born in Havana, Cuba, on November 24, 1959.[5] When he was one year old, his parents fled with him and his sister to the United States in 1960 as refugees, following the Cuban Revolution. He lived in Miami, Florida, before his family moved to Los Angeles, California, where he was raised.[6]
Mayorkas graduated from the University of California, Berkeley in 1981 with a Bachelor of Arts degree with distinction.[7] He received his Juris Doctor in 1985 from Loyola Law School, where he was an editor of the Loyola of Los Angeles Entertainment Law Review.[8]
On November 23, 2020, then President-elect Joe Biden announced that his plans to nominate Mayorkas to be the next United States Secretary of Homeland Security.[9][10] In February 2021, Mayorkas was confirmed by the United States Senate on a 56-43 vote with many Republicans criticizing his nomination.[11] Mayorkas is the first refugee and first person born in Latin America to lead the department.[12]
Early on in his tenure, arrests increased at the Mexico-United States border. In June 2021, the monthly number of arrested migrants reached a decade high of 188,800.[13]
On October 31, 2023, Mayorkas testified before the Senate Homeland Security Committee, saying that more than 600,000 people illegally made their way into the United States without being apprehended by border agents during the 2023 fiscal year.[14][15]
On February 13, 2024, Mayorkas was impeached, with a 214–213 vote, by the United States House of Representatives. This came after an earlier unsuccessful impeachment vote one week before.[16] Mayorkas is only the second cabinet member to be impeached, the first being Secretary of War William Belknap in 1876.[17]
Mayorkas and his wife Tanya have two daughters.[18]