Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is not planning on voting to confirm President-elect Joe Biden’s nominee to lead the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Alejandro Mayorkas.
During a speech on the Senate floor, McConnell slammed Mayorkas for his actions under the Obama administration.
He said Mayorkas “does not deserve Senate confirmation.”
McConnell added, “Frankly his record should foreclose confirmation even to a lower post.”
He explained the issue with Mayorkas is not experience.
McConnell accused Mayorkas of doing “his best to turn U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services into an unethical favor factory for Democratic Party royalty.”
Watch his speech below:
McConnell explained, “We are talking about shoving through green cards as political favors, and intervening to overturn denials.”
He noted Mayorkas was involved in a controversial pardon under former President Clinton.
McConnell mentioned statements made by the former Obama official’s employees suggesting his leadership led to a “culture of fear and disrespect.”
“Does this sound like somebody who deserves a promotion?” he asked.
McConnell continued, “It’s frankly remarkable that someone with this record is even up for a Cabinet appointment.”
He confirmed he would be voting against the nominee’s confirmation and encouraged his colleagues to do the same.
Mayorkas was pressed on the issue of immigration during his Senate confirmation hearing, as IJR previously reported.
“We are a nation of immigrants. And we are also a nation of laws. And I intend to apply the law in the execution of my responsibilities as the secretary of Homeland Security should I have that privilege,” Mayorkas said.
Former homeland security secretaries under the Obama and Bush administrations called on the Senate last week to confirm Mayorkas, as IJR previously reported.
“In the wake of the January 6th domestic terror attack on the Capitol—the symbol of our nation’s democracy—it is more urgent than ever to have in place an experienced, capable and Senate-confirmed leader,” Tom Ridge and Michael Chertoff, former DHS secretaries for Bush, and Janet Napolitano and Jeh Johnson, former DHS secretaries for Obama, wrote in a letter.
They went on, “That person is Mayorkas.”
