Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, on Friday released a letter that he sent to his colleagues in the Senate urging them to oppose the nomination of Alejandro Mayorkas as Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, saying he “has shown a repeated disregard for the rule of law.”
Cruz claims that Mayorkas, the former deputy secretary of DHS who also served as Director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, committed “a long list of ethical, legal, and policy failures,” during his career, including “abuses of power that provided special government favors to benefit well-connected Democrats, such as securing an EB-5 visa for a high-level official at Huawei, a global espionage operation of the Chinese Communist Party masquerading as a technology company.”
The senator cited a 2015 inspector general’s report on Mayorkas, which he says “brought to light his improper actions as the Director of USCIS.”
The report concerns the then-director’s intervention in the EB-5 visa program and any possible link with wealthy investors, and concluded that while Mayorkas did not break any laws he did create the appearance of “special access,” according to The Washington Post.
“Mayorkas overrode normal process in order to provide political favors under the EB-5 visa program to well-connected Democrat stakeholders — including a company run by former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s brother that sought a visa for a vice president of Huawei Technologies and a company in which Senator Harry Reid’s son was involved,” Cruz writes.
“Mr. Mayorkas’s improper intervention was the deciding factor in granting visas to politically favored companies and people, and led to ‘significant resentment’ among not only career staff but ‘senior managers and attorneys responsible for USCIS mission and programs.’ As the Inspector General bluntly put it, Mr. Mayorkas’s intervention was ‘corrosive and destabilizing,’” he continued.
“As we did in 2013, we should stand firm and refuse to confirm Mr. Mayorkas,” Cruz concludes, referencing the lack of GOP support that Mayorkas received when confirmed by the Senate that year.
Theodore Bunker ✉
Theodore Bunker, a Newsmax writer, has more than a decade covering news, media, and politics.
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