Alejandro Mayorkas

Alejandro Mayorkas is an American attorney who served as the seventh United States Secretary of Homeland Security from February 2021 until his resignation in 2025. Prior to that role, he directed U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (2009–2013) and held the position of deputy secretary of homeland security (2013–2016). His career has spanned federal prosecution, immigration administration, and national security leadership, and his tenure as secretary was marked by significant policy debates over border enforcement and immigration reform.

Early life and career

Mayorkas was born on November 24, 1959, in Havana, Cuba. When he was one year old, his parents fled the country following the Cuban Revolution; they first settled in Miami, Florida, before relocating to Los Angeles, California, where Mayorkas spent most of his childhood. He grew up in Beverly Hills and attended Beverly Hills High School.

His father, Charles R. “Nicky” Mayorkas, was a Cuban Jew with Sephardi ancestry from the former Ottoman Empire (present‑day Turkey and Greece) and Ashkenazi roots from Poland; he operated a steel wool factory near Havana and studied economics at Dartmouth College. His mother, Anita Gabor, was a Romanian Jew whose family had escaped the Holocaust before moving to Cuba in the 1940s and later emigrating to the United States after the revolution.

Mayorkas earned a Bachelor of Arts degree with distinction from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1981, majoring in history. He then attended Loyola Marymount University’s law school, where he received his Juris Doctor in 1985 and served as an editor for the Loyola of Los Angeles Entertainment Law Review.

After three years in private litigation, Mayorkas joined the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California as an assistant United States attorney in 1989. In that capacity he prosecuted a wide range of federal crimes, developing expertise in white‑collar offenses such as tax evasion and money laundering. His notable cases included Operation PolarCap—the largest money‑laundering prosecution at the time—Heidi Fleiss’s conviction on conspiracy, tax fraud, and money‑laundering charges, and two major telemarketing fraud schemes that targeted elderly victims. He also led a health‑care and insurance fraud conspiracy prosecution.

From 1996 to 1998, Mayorkas served as chief of the office’s General Crimes Section, overseeing training and trial work for new assistant U.S. attorneys. During this period he coordinated the Southern California Telemarketing Fraud Task Force, bringing together federal, state, and local agencies to combat telemarketing fraud across the Central District.

In 1998, Senator Dianne Feinstein recommended him for appointment as United States Attorney for the Central District of California. President Bill Clinton appointed Mayorkas on December 21, 1998, making him the youngest U.S. attorney in the country at that time. He oversaw prosecutions of high‑profile criminal cases until his departure in 2001.

Cabinet tenure

Mayorkas entered the Obama administration’s transition team in 2009, leading the segment responsible for the Department of Justice’s Criminal Division. That same year he was appointed by President Barack Obama as director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). As USCIS director, he oversaw the implementation of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) within a 60‑day period and directed efforts to rescue orphaned children following the January 2010 earthquake in Haiti. He also advanced the agency’s crime victims unit, enabling USCIS to issue the statutory maximum number of visas available to crime victims.

From 2013 to 2016, Mayorkas served as deputy secretary of homeland security, working under Secretary Janet Napolitano and later under Secretary John F. Kelly. In that role he managed day‑to‑day operations of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and contributed to policy development across the agency’s portfolio.

On November 23, 2020, President‑elect Joe Biden nominated Mayorkas for secretary of homeland security. The nomination received endorsements from the Fraternal Order of Police and several former secretaries. The Senate confirmed him on February 2, 2021, by a vote of 56–43. He was sworn in that same day by Vice President Kamala Harris.

During his tenure as secretary, U.S. Customs and Border Protection reported approximately ten million encounters with removable noncitizens nationwide. In fiscal year 2022, the agency recorded a record 2.2 million encounters at the U.S.–Mexico border, the highest in history, and estimated that 1.5 million “gotaways”—individuals who evaded capture—entered the United States during that period.

Mayorkas’s approach to immigration policy drew significant opposition from Republican lawmakers, particularly over his support for halting construction of the U.S.–Mexico border wall and advocating a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. In 2024, the House of Representatives impeached him on charges of dereliction of duty in a narrow vote of 214–213; this made him the first cabinet member to be impeached since William Belknap in 1876. An earlier impeachment vote had failed by one vote a week prior. The Senate subsequently dismissed the impeachment charges with a 51–49 vote on April 17, ending the process without a trial.

Legacy

Mayorkas’s career reflects extensive experience in federal law enforcement and immigration administration, culminating in his leadership of DHS during a period of heightened debate over border security and immigration reform. His tenure as USCIS director is noted for rapid implementation of DACA and humanitarian responses to international crises such as the Haiti earthquake. As secretary, he oversaw unprecedented levels of encounters at the U.S.–Mexico border and managed the agency’s response to large numbers of removals and “gotaways.”

The impeachment proceedings against him were historic, marking the first time a cabinet secretary had faced that process in more than a century. While the Senate ultimately dismissed the charges, the episode underscored deep partisan divisions over homeland security policy.

Overall, Mayorkas’s service has been characterized by a blend of prosecutorial rigor, administrative leadership, and engagement with complex immigration issues. His impact on DHS operations, border enforcement statistics, and immigration policy debates continues to be referenced in discussions of U.S. national security and legal administration.