Eric Holder is on his way out, and the New York Post reports that President Obama is considering a surprising replacement: Alejandro Mayorkas, the man who oversaw a controversial immigrant visa program at the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
“Alejandro Mayorkas created a dangerous ‘get to yes’ culture at the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, where rubber-stamping green cards took precedence over doing adequate background checks or addressing employee’s concerns about fraud,” said Bob Dane, spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform.
“Same fox, different henhouse,” Dane said of a move to the Department of Justice.
Mayorkas would face an uphill battle in Senate confirmation hearings. A federal investigation into Mayorkas’ leadership at USCIS prompted Senate Republicans to boycott his confirmation as deputy secretary of the Department of Homeland Security earlier this year.
“Were the president to nominate Mayorkas, he would absolutely guarantee a nasty confirmation battle,” said David North, a policy analyst at the Center for Immigration Studies.
Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa, the senior Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, wrote numerous letters to Mayorkas seeking answers about the USCIS-administered EB-5 program, which grants U.S. green cards to foreign nationals in exchange for investments in American businesses.
“Given the number of letters addressed to him which remain unanswered from his time at USCIS, I would have some real concerns with the nomination,” Grassley said.
Last December, Grassley blasted Mayorkas, citing “evidence (that) appears to support allegations that Mr. Mayorkas and his leadership team … are susceptible to political pressure and favoritism.”
Grassley said documents “appear to show (Mayorkas) intervening in an EB-5 decision involving Gulf Coast Funds Management, an organization run by Hillary Clinton’s brother, Anthony Rodham.”
“This decision benefited GreenTech Automotive, a company run by [Virginia Gov.] Terry McAuliffe that was receiving funding from Gulf Coast Funds Management,” the senator said.
Obama has pledged to nominate an attorney general and take another run at immigration reform this fall.
Dane sees Mayorkas at the center of the action, alleging that the former USCIS director “retooled the agency to accommodate the president’s backdoor amnesty for tens of thousands of illegal aliens.”
Other candidates believed to be under consideration are Loretta Lynch, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York; Solicitor General Donald Verrilli; and Labor Secretary Thomas Perez.