Who Will Be Biden’s Secretary of Homeland Security?

Assuming a brand new administration in January, who will head up the Department of Homeland Security?

Five names are at the moment being mentioned within the press. Stretching my neck out, i’d place them on this order of chance:

1. Alejandro Mayorkas, deputy secretary of DHS under President Obama;
2. Rep. Val Demings of Florida;
3. Governor Gina Raimondo of Rhode Island;
4. Lisa Monaco, former homeland safety adviser to President Obama; and
5. Xavier Becerra, the lawyer basic of California.

The cause that I put Becerra in fifth place is as a result of he’s a strong candidate for 2 different high-ranking positions. He may succeed Kamala Harris as senator from California, simply as he succeeded her as lawyer basic. This would make geo-political sense as each senators from California have been from the Bay Area for a very long time; his appointment to the Senate would end in one member from the Los Angeles space (Becerra) and one from the Bay Area (Dianne Feinstein).

Becerra, who can be mentioned to be under consideration for the U.S. lawyer basic, spent 24 years within the House of Representatives.

I would observe in passing, considering alongside the strains of former Governor Mario Cuomo, that of the 10 names of the 5 candidates, six finish in vowels. Four of the 5 are native-born, with Mayorkas having been born in Havana. Two of the others come from Italian household unit backgrounds, and Becerra from a Mexican one. Four of the 5 have regulation levels. The exception is Demings, a Black lady, who was a police chief in Orlando.

Mayorkas, now a accomplice on the prestigious Wilmer Hale agency in Washington, D.C., has probably the most direct immigration experience, having been Obama’s first director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services earlier than being promoted to deputy secretary of DHS later within the Obama years.

Politico, nevertheless, has written about his prospects:

If Biden faucets Mayorkas, he might additionally face questions on a 2015 inspector basic’s report that discovered that Mayorkas went round regular company channels and intervened with [USCIS] profession staffers in ways in which led them “to reasonably believe that specific individuals or groups were being given special access or consideration” within the EB-5 visa program.

The article leaves out a key element, nevertheless: The appearing inspector basic who was feuding with Mayorkas on the time, Charles K. Edwards, has had his credibility marred since, having been indicted for monetary misdoings within the federal courts within the District of Columbia.

Raimondo has earned good marks for her supervision of a once-troubled state authorities; i’ve by no means heard of something she did, by hook or by crook, within the immigration area. Monaco is a brand new identify to me; she additionally served in high-ranking positions within the Obama Justice Department. Demings has served on each the House Homeland Security and Judiciary Committees, each of which cope with DHS issues.

All of the ladies would most likely face much less problem being confirmed than both of the 2 males, on the grounds that the boys have taken positions which might be controversial.

One different identify that may well be within the combine is that of the well-regarded Doris Meissner, who served as commissioner of the outdated Immigration and Naturalization Service under President Clinton, and has been for years a senior fellow on the Migration Policy Institute. A centrist, she has spent a lifetime within the immigration enterprise and will not need to face the effort of the secretaryship. She may, nevertheless, have much less problem being confirmed than among the others.