MESSAGE
| DATE | 2021-01-19 |
| FROM | Ruben Safir
|
| SUBJECT | Subject: [Hangout - NYLXS] Bidens Homeland Security know who is the threat,
|
wsj.com
DHS Pick Mayorkas Says He Would Work to Thwart Another Capitol Attack
Michelle Hackman
6-8 minutes
WASHINGTON— Alejandro Mayorkas, President-elect Joe Biden’s pick for
Homeland Security secretary, told a Senate hearing Tuesday he would work
to ensure that an attack like the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol wouldn’t be
repeated, though his confirmation by Inauguration Day appeared to be
delayed.
Mr. Biden’s team had named Mr. Mayorkas as one of a handful of
national-security nominees it wanted confirmed on Inauguration Day
because of continuing domestic threats. In 2017, the Senate confirmed
both President Trump’s homeland security and defense nominees on
Inauguration Day. Sen. Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.), who is set to become
the chamber’s majority leader on Wednesday, said on the Senate floor he
hoped Mr. Mayorkas would be confirmed on Inauguration Day.
That timeline appeared less likely Tuesday after Sen. Josh Hawley (R.,
Mo.) said he would object to an attempt to fast-track the nomination.
Mr. Hawley expressed concern about the incoming Biden administration’s
plan to undo much of Mr. Trump’s immigration agenda, along with an
expected push to create a pathway to citizenship for 11 million
immigrants without a permanent legal status.
Mr. Hawley, who was the first senator to announce he would formally
object to certifying the election results on Jan. 6, has faced a
backlash from colleagues and donors since that day. Many Senate
Republicans blame him for what they see as his role in instigating the
riot that resulted in the deaths of five people, including a Capitol
Police officer.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) and Mr. Schumer met
Tuesday to iron out details of a power-sharing agreement in a Senate
divided evenly along party lines. Under a similar agreement in 2001,
nominees and bills could advance to the floor even if a committee vote tied.
The 2½-hour hearing Tuesday, one of five scheduled ahead of Mr. Biden’s
inauguration on Wednesday, focused on immigration matters. The hearing
also touched on the range of the Department of Homeland Security’s
responsibilities, from investigating the government’s failure to
adequately anticipate the Capitol riot to a cyberattack against several
government agencies and the coronavirus pandemic.
The hearing was mostly devoid of the fireworks seen at many DHS hearings
during the Trump administration, with Republican senators pressing Mr.
Mayorkas to work with them on combating cyber threats, natural disasters
and human trafficking.
Mr. Mayorkas, the deputy DHS secretary during the Obama administration,
singled out right-wing extremism as a threat he would give priority to.
He said DHS has a central role in gathering information about extremists
and disseminating it to state and local law enforcement.
Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio, the top Republican on the Senate Homeland
Security Committee, said DHS has struggled in recent years because of a
lack of Senate-confirmed leadership. DHS hasn’t had a Senate-confirmed
secretary since April 2019, when Kirstjen Nielsen was forced to resign.
A number of its leadership posts, including at the three primary
immigration agencies, also haven’t had permanent leaders. Several GOP
senators have privately expressed to colleagues that the situation made
confirming a new leader all the more urgent, according to people
familiar with the matter.
If confirmed, Mr. Mayorkas would become the first Latino and first
immigrant to hold the job. Mr. Mayorkas discussed during the hearing how
his personal story shaped his view of the job. Mr. Mayorkas’s
Romanian-born mother fled the Holocaust in the 1940s, and less than 20
years later, he said, she fled Fidel Castro’s Cuba with her husband and
Mr. Mayorkas, then just a year old. They eventually settled in Los Angeles.
“My father and mother brought me to this country to escape communism and
to provide me with the security, opportunity and pride that American
citizenship brings to each of us,” Mr. Mayorkas said in his opening
statement.
During the hearing, senators asked about border security, the Deferred
Action for Childhood Arrivals program and asylum law.
Mr. Mayorkas said he would halt construction of President Trump’s border
wall, as Mr. Biden has said he would do, but wouldn’t commit to
dismantling existing barriers.
--
So many immigrant groups have swept through our town
that Brooklyn, like Atlantis, reaches mythological
proportions in the mind of the world - RI Safir 1998
http://www.mrbrklyn.com
DRM is THEFT - We are the STAKEHOLDERS - RI Safir 2002
http://www.nylxs.com - Leadership Development in Free Software
http://www.brooklyn-living.com
Being so tracked is for FARM ANIMALS and extermination camps,
but incompatible with living as a free human being. -RI Safir 2013
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