Biden’s DHS Pick Alejandro Mayorkas Accused of Dodging EB-5 Visa Scandal
President Joe Biden’s nominee to lead the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Alejandro Mayokras, has dodged questions about his intervention as head of the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to help wealthy foreign nationals secure EB-5 visas, a letter entered into the Senate record claims.
In a January 15 letter to Mayorkas, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) alleged that the former USCIS chief has not been transparent about his role and involvement in a series of EB-5 visa cases. Mayorkas was reported by multiple USCIS staffers for intervening in three specific EB-5 visa cases where foreign investors had been denied visas. In 2015, Obama’s DHS IG John Roth documented the inappropriate actions.
The EB-5 visa program allows wealthy foreign nationals to claim to invest at least $900,000 in U.S. development projects in order to receive green cards for themselves and their families with eventual pathways to American citizenship.
Grassley, who began requesting information about the cases in 2013 when whistleblowers at USCIS reached out to him, writes that Mayorkas has not provided “direct answers” about the cases:
During the Obama Administration, I wrote to you on multiple occasions in your capacity as Director of USCIS to raise concerns about your management of the EB-5 Regional Center Program. My letters, which were part of my ongoing oversight of the EB-5 program, were informed by more than fifteen whistleblowers who contacted my office. Several of those letters pertained to allegations that during your time at USCIS, you provided special access to politically-connected stakeholders with applications pending before the agency, and pressured adjudicators to expedite the review of those applications. Despite the serious ethical concerns at the center of my letters, thus far, I have received only vague responses from you and have received no direct answers to the more than 25 questions that I have asked. [Emphasis added]
Your failure to fully respond to my questions during your time as Director of USCIS raises serious questions about the manner in which you will respond to congressional oversight requests in the future should you be confirmed as the next Secretary of Homeland Security. [Emphasis added]
One of those cases, reported by Breitbart News, involved Mayorkas seemingly intervening “on behalf of Gulf Coast Funds Management, a company with ties to Democratic politician Terry McAuliffe and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s brother, Anthony Rodham,” Grassley notes.
Grassley writes:
As I noted in one of my letters to you, documents indicate that you engaged in nearly a dozen contacts with Gulf Coast between 2010 and 2013, including direct communications with Gulf Coast’s attorneys. On one occasion, when you received an e-mail from Mr. Rodham inquiring about the status of cases involving his company in which Mr. Rodham stated, “[w]e really appreciate your assistance in looking into this matter for us to move our cases along,” you forwarded the e-mail to a subordinate overseeing the EB-5 program and added an “Importance: High” designation. You also intervened in an effort to revise a draft decision … involving Gulf Coast that was not initially favorable to the company. [Emphasis added]
According to whistleblowers who spoke with my office about your involvement with reshaping the AAO draft, at one point, you allegedly said of the decision, “Give it to me, I’ll write the f—ing thing myself.” Although the DHS OIG found that you were eventually “dissuaded…from rewriting the decision [yourself],” when the OIG reviewed the matter, it described your “intervention on technical adjudicative matters” as “corrosive and destabilizing” and noted that to their knowledge, it was the first instance of any USCIS director reviewing the merits of or intervening in an AAO decision. [Emphasis added]
At this confirmation hearing before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, Mayorkas was repeatedly asked about the EB-5 visa scandal but only gave vague responses and defended himself as a problem-solver.
“I became involved in a lot of cases …. and I did my job,” Mayorkas told Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) when he asked about the scandal. “I learned of problems and I fixed them.”
The questions around ethics are of major importance to the operations at DHS, specifically as they pertain to the business lobby. Congress, for instance, in recent years has delegated power to the DHS Secretary to set the limits on H-2B visas — the visa program that business interests lobby to increase caps every six months regardless of the nation’s unemployment rate.
A Senate confirmation vote on Mayorkas is scheduled for this week.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com.
Armed Human Smuggler, 20 Migrants Arrested in West Texas near Border
Big Bend Sector Border Patrol agents arrested an armed human smuggler and a group of migrants at an interior immigration checkpoint near Alpine, Texas. The smuggler locked a group of migrants in the cargo area of a utility trailer.
Agents assigned to an interior immigration checkpoint near Alpine observed a pickup truck pulling a utility trailer approaching for inspection. During the initial contact, agents identified some of the passengers as migrants who were illegally present in the United States, according to information obtained from Big Bend Sector Border Patrol officials.
The agents referred the driver to a secondary inspection area and conducted a physical search of the trailer. When they unlocked the trailer, the agents found 20 more migrants. The smuggler reportedly locked the migrants inside with no food or water and little air ventilation.
A photograph of the scene shows none of the migrants wore any kind of PPE to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
While searching the vehicle, the agents found a pistol, a revolver, and two knives.
The agents arrested the human smuggler and the migrants. Officials report the smuggler will face federal prosecution from the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
“Beginning on January 24, there has been a notable increase in illegal immigrants found in sealed cargo trailers, moving trailers, and even livestock trailers,” Big Bend Sector officials said in a written statement. “These trailers were not equipped with proper ventilation, food, water, or protection from the elements.”
Agents arrested more than 80 migrants in separate events on January 24, 29, and 30, officials stated.
“Smugglers were apprehended with active warrants, weapons in the vehicles, and previous criminal histories,” the statement continued. “Prosecution is on-going for multiple individuals under the appropriate statutes along with [the] seizure of their vehicles, weapons, and trailers.”
The agents identified the migrants as having come to the U.S. from El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, and Mexico. All will be expelled to Mexico under Title 42 Coronavirus protection protocols put in place by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Bob Price serves as associate editor and senior news contributor for the Breitbart Texas-Border team. He is an original member of the Breitbart Texas team. Price is a regular panelist on Fox 26 Houston’s Sunday-morning talk show, What’s Your Point? Follow him on Twitter @BobPriceBBTX, Parler @BobPrice, and Facebook.
Mayorkas Confirmed as Biden’s DHS Secretary, Amnesty Chief
President Joe Biden’s nominee to run the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) — and his pro-amnesty agenda — has been confirmed 56-43 with the help of votes from several GOP Senators.
The confirmation of Alejandro Mayorkas gives him the legal authority as DHS Secretary to supercharge Biden’s amnesty and migration goals with a series of new policies, regulations, bureaucratic rules, and personnel picks.
His confirmation was backed by several GOP senators, including Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Mitt Romney (R-UT), Dan Sullivan (R-AK), Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), and Susan Collins (R-ME).
Mayoka was also backed by the most centrist of the Democrats, Sen. Joe Manchin (R-WV).
No Republican senators stood up on the Senate floor to speak against the confirmation of Mayorkas and his pr0 migration policies.
Mayorkas is an experienced manager, an immigrant and an immigration lawyer, and a pro-migration advocate. He is expected to push agency officials to open up migration channels for blue-collar migrants and white-collar migrants, including the many white-collar visa workers who take jobs from U.S. graduates.
Mayorkas is also expected to help Biden’s administration create regulatory amnesties for large groups of illegals and help push many resident green card holders to seek citizenship, allowing them to vote for Democrats in 2022 and 2024.
For example, in 2012, Mayorkas helped President Barack Obama create the “DACA” work permit program for roughly 800,000 younger illegals during the post-2008 depression, and he helped open border gateways for migrants that would push more economic pressure on blue-collar Americans.
In 2009, Mayorkas also used his position at the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services to gradually open loopholes at the border. Since then, more than 3.5 million migrants from Mexico and Central America have crossed into the United States. A December 3 report by the Department of Homeland Security showed that more than half of the 3.5 million migrants who arrived after 2014 were still in the United States by March 2020.
Mayorkas is backed by the Democrats’ broad pro-migration wing. The wing includes groups representing Fortune 500 CEOs as well as groups of illegal migrants.
Top Democrats defended Mayorkas by citing his identity politics origins:
Ali Mayorkas worked his way up to the highest echelons of public service
Like most of President Biden’s cabinet nominees, his nomination is history-making:
He'll be the first Latino and first immigrant to become Secretary of Homeland Security
I'll be proud to confirm him today
— Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) February 2, 2021
Mayorkas’s rocky path was widened to confirmation when six GOP Senators voted on January 28 to allow his nomination to get a floor vote. They included Senators Capito, Rob Portman (R-OH), Murkowski, Collins Sullivan, and Romney.
Romney and Portman also provided Mayorkas majority support in the committee, despite Romney’s claim that he disagrees with Mayorkas’s policies.
The GOP Senators who backed Mayorkas are under pressure from employers in their own states. Once in the DHS job, Mayorkas can help the senators deliver H-2A farmworkers, H-2B blue-collar workers, and H-1B college grads to many CEOs who otherwise would have to recruit, hire, train, and pay Americans.
Some GOP Senators spoke against Mayorkas.
“If confirmed, Mayorkas will again push for executive amnesty programs–at the expense of American wages and jobs,” said a string of tweets from Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR).
Alejandro Mayorkas is unfit to be Secretary of Homeland Security. He has refused to enforce immigration law and has a history of corruption and scandal.
No Senator should vote in favor of confirmation.
— Tom Cotton (@SenTomCotton) February 2, 2021
GOP leader Sen. Mitch McConnel (R-KY) voted against Mayorkas:
I’ve voted for several of President Biden’s mainstream cabinet nominees. But his choice to run Homeland Security was blasted by the Obama Administration’s own Inspector General for running an immigration law favor factory for powerful Democrats. Bad pick with major ethics issues.
— Leader McConnell (@LeaderMcConnell) February 2, 2021
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) denounced Mayorkas. A statement from Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) said:
Mayorkas is one of the most radical nominees to be considered to lead the Department. Not only has Mayorkas pledged to undo the sensible protections put in place by the Trump Administration that ended the dangerous policy of catch and release, but his nomination is further evidence that the Biden Administration intends to pursue a radical immigration agenda. I oppose his confirmation.
For years, a wide variety of pollsters have shown deep and broad opposition to labor migration — or the hiring of temporary contract workers into the jobs sought by young U.S. graduates. The multiracial, cross-sex, non-racist, class-based, priority-driven, and solidarity-themed opposition to labor migration coexists with generally favorable personal feelings toward legal immigrants and toward immigration in theory.
The deep public opposition is built on the widespread recognition that migration moves money from employees to employers, from families to investors, from young to old, from children to their parents, from homebuyers to real estate investors, and from the central states to the coastal states.
Joe Biden's 3 Executive Orders on migration do not set big changes.
But they order his very pro-migration deputies to draft big changes while the media focuses on aid for poor migrants who correctly saw their kids can be lockpicks to get thru US borderhttps://t.co/P8OSXOHbcQ— Neil Munro (@NeilMunroDC) February 2, 2021
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