On April 17, local time, the U.S. Senate voted 51 in favor and 49 against to end the impeachment trial against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. At the end of January, the Republican-controlled House of Representatives passed an impeachment motion against Mayorkas for his poor handling of the border issue, making Mayorkas the first cabinet member to be impeached in nearly 150 years. The impeachment case was then brought to the Senate on April 16, and Mayorkas escaped when two articles of impeachment were voted to repeal. His experience was essentially another fierce game between the Democratic and Republican parties in the US election year.
Mayorkas infographic
Party Dispute "Sacrifice"
Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has been "tough" on the U.S. federal government on illegal immigration. In July last year, Texas began erecting buoys, barbed wire and other barriers along the U.S.-Mexico border to block illegal immigrants from entering the country. The move sparked strong opposition from the Biden administration, and the U.S. Department of Justice sued the Texas government, accusing it of affecting U.S.-Mexico relations and causing a humanitarian crisis. Texas then sued the Department of Homeland Security, alleging that the U.S. Border Patrol violated Texas law by breaching the Texas barbed wire. The dispute over whether to remove or retain the barbed wire fence has been appealed to the Federal Supreme Court.
On January 22 this year, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Biden administration, ruling that federal law enforcement officers were temporarily allowed to dismantle the barbed wire fence erected by Texas at the border during the lawsuit. However, Abbott refused to comply with the verdict and entered into an "armed standoff" with the federal government. After that, the situation escalated further, with former Republican President Trump and 25 Republican governors jointly supporting Texas, and Republican lawmakers such as Speaker of the House of Representatives Mike Johnson also expressed support for Texas.
The Texas National Guard set up barbed wire fences along the border
The impeachment of Mayorkas was also on the agenda at that time, with House Republicans announcing impeachment charges against Mayorkas on January 28. In the impeachment charge, they said Mayorkas had "deliberately and systematically refused to comply with the law" on immigration issues, leading to a failure of immigration control at the U.S.-Mexico border, which violated public trust, and accused him of obstructing congressional investigations. On February 13, the House of Representatives voted to impeach Mayorkas, becoming the first cabinet member in nearly 150 years to be impeached.
Still, with the Democrats maintaining a slim majority in the Senate, Mayorkas will not be impeached and removed from office. On April 17, the Senate voted down two articles of impeachment by a vote of 51 in favor and 48 against and 51 in favor and 49 against. Some analysts believe that the Republican Party only intends to attack the Biden administration's ineffective handling of the immigration issue through the impeachment of Mayorkas, so as to help Trump's election.
The son of a Cuban immigrant
Mayorkas was born in Havana, Cuba, in 1959, the first U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security of Latino and Cuban descent, and after the success of the Cuban Revolution, relations between the United States and Cuba deteriorated and confrontation intensified, and the Mayorkas family set foot on American soil as political immigrants in August 1960. Later, Mayorkas's maternal grandparents also moved to the United States, while his grandparents stayed in Cuba. At first, Mayorkas's father was able to travel back and forth between the United States and Cuba to visit relatives, but after the United States and Cuba severed diplomatic relations in 1961 and the United States imposed a blockade on Cuba, he could never return.
Mayorkas's parents
A cousin living in California found Mayorkas's father a job as a clerk in a textile factory, and the family settled. Mayorkas did not come to a wealthy family during his childhood, but his parents valued their children's education, and he graduated from the University of California, Berkeley in 1981 with a Bachelor of Arts degree, and later received a Juris Doctor degree from Loyola Law School in 1985.
Like many law graduates, he worked in private practice for several years, then as an assistant prosecutor, becoming the youngest federal prosecutor in the United States in 1998. Mayorkas received a number of accolades for his outstanding tenure until 2001, when he joined a Los Angeles-based law firm.
Mayorkas's minority status, as well as his experience as a lawyer and prosecutor, made him quickly noticed by the Democratic administration. After Obama took office in January 2009, Mayorkas was appointed director of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Affairs Department under the Department of Homeland Security. During Obama's second term, Mayorkas became deputy secretary of homeland security, making him the highest-ranking Cuban-American in the Obama administration.
During his tenure, Mayorkas was behind the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. The plan, signed into law by Obama in 2012, would allow teenage illegal immigrants who were brought into the United States by their parents at a young age to avoid deportation and legally obtain jobs. However, this plan was interrupted in 2017 after Trump took office.
Ever visited Cuba
During Obama's presidency, he promoted the normalization of relations between the United States and Cuba, and Mayorkas became an important figure in this process. At the end of October 2015, Mayorkas visited Cuba and met with senior officials from the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Communications, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which was a prelude to Obama's visit to Cuba in March 2016. Before that visit, Mayorkas said emotionally: "I always wanted to go back to Cuba with my father and see where he was born and went to school. Unfortunately, my father passed away a few years ago, and I had to go back on my own. ”
As the vice president under Obama, it is not surprising that Biden chose Mayorkas as secretary of homeland security after taking office. Jay Johnson, the Obama-era secretary of homeland security, supported Mayorkas as follows: "I can't think of anyone better for this position."
Mayorkas vs. Biden
After receiving the Biden nomination, Mayorkas wrote on social media: "Today, I am nominated as Secretary of Homeland Security to oversee how to protect all Americans and those who are fleeing persecution and seeking a better life for themselves and their loved ones. In February 2021, the U.S. Senate voted to approve Mayorkas's nomination, making him the first U.S. secretary of homeland security by an immigrant origin and the first Hispanic secretary of homeland security.
This is an election year in the United States, and the issue of immigration is once again in the spotlight of Biden's confrontation with Trump. On February 29 this year, Biden and Trump made a "rare" appearance at the U.S.-Mexico border on the same day, and both emphasized in their speeches that they were the best people to solve the problem of illegal immigration. The immigration issue is a long-standing feud between the two parties in the United States, and it will not end with the Mayorkas impeachment case, but may be further amplified and heated up as the presidential election approaches.
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