Alejandro Mayorkas

Alejandro Nicolas Mayorkas (born November 24, 1959) is an American attorney and government official who was the seventh United States secretary of homeland security, serving from 2021 until 2025. A member of the Democratic Party, Mayorkas previously served as the director of United States Citizenship and Immigration Services from 2009 to 2013, and the sixth deputy secretary of homeland security from 2013 to 2016.

Mayorkas was born in Havana, Cuba. Shortly after the Cuban Revolution, his family fled to Florida and later settled in California. He graduated from UC Berkeley in history with honors, subsequently earning his J.D. from Loyola Marymount University. After law school, Mayorkas worked as an assistant United States attorney and as the United States attorney for the Central District of California in Los Angeles from 1998 to 2001. In 2009, Mayorkas was a member of the presidential transition team for Barack Obama, leading the team responsible for the U.S. Department of Justice's Criminal Division. He was appointed by President Obama as the director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. As USCIS director, Mayorkas implemented the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) process in 60 days. He led U.S. government efforts to rescue orphaned children following the January 2010 earthquake in Haiti, and led the advancement of a crime victims unit that, for the first time, made it possible for the agency to issue the statutory maximum number of visas to victims of crime.

On November 23, 2020, Mayorkas was nominated by President-elect Joe Biden for the position of secretary of homeland security. Mayorkas's nomination received the endorsement of the Fraternal Order of Police and several former secretaries. He was confirmed by the Senate on a 56–43 vote on February 2, 2021, facing significant Republican opposition over his stance on immigration, particularly his support for halting border wall construction and advocating for a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants. He was sworn in by Vice President Kamala Harris the same day.

Since Mayorkas became Secretary of Homeland Security, U.S. Customs and Border Protection has reported about 10 million nationwide encounters with removable noncitizens across the country. This includes a record 2.2 million encounters at the U.S.-Mexico border in fiscal year 2022, the highest in history. Additionally, 1.5 million "gotaways"—people who evaded capture—were estimated to have entered the U.S. during this period.

Republicans have made sharp criticism of Mayorkas' policies and tenure, leading to his impeachment for dereliction of duty in a narrow and largely partisan 214–213 vote by the House of Representatives in 2024. This came after an unsuccessful impeachment vote of Mayorkas one week prior. Mayorkas is the first cabinet member to be impeached since William Belknap in 1876. The Senate voted 51–49 to dismiss the impeachment charges on April 17, ending the impeachment without a trial.