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| Alejandro Mayorkas | |
|---|---|
 Alejandro Mayorkas. | |
| Born | Havana, Cuba |
| Nationality | United States |
| Occupation | Director of the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services |
Alejandro Mayorkas is a Cuban-American lawyer and director of the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).
Early life and education
Mayorkas was born in Havana, Cuba, and moved to the United States at the age of one. He graduated from Beverly Hills High School and from the University of California at Berkeley. He received his Juris Doctor from Loyola Law School..
Career
Before he became the head of the USCIS, Mayorkas was the United States Attorney for southern California. According to the Washington Post, this job involved overseeing cases about public corruption, immigration, narcotics trafficking and money laundering.
In 2001, Mayorkas was criticized by the House Committee on Government Reform for his involvement in the commutation of the prison sentence of Carlos Vignali. Vignali had served six years of a fifteen-year sentence for his role in a drug-trafficking operation when he was granted clemency by the then-United-States-President Bill Clinton, one of 176 commutations and pardons performed by Clinton during his last few hours in office. According to Politico, Mayorkas had phoned the White House to argue that Vignali should be released, apparently in answer to a request by Vignali's father, a well-known Los Angeles businessman. Unknown to Mayorkas, Vignali's father had been suspected of drugs trafficking by federal law enforcement, but there had never been enough evidence to bring a case against him. Mayorkas later apologised for his role in the affair, saying, "It is reasonable to expect that someone in my position would do his or her due diligence to learn that information, ... I made a mistake."
In 2008, Mayorkas was selected as a member of Barack Obama's Justice Department review team.
Mayorkas was promoted to the head of the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services in 2009. He was nominated for the post by Barack Obama in April 2009, and was approved by the United States Senate in August of that year. As of 2011, the USCIS was the largest immigration bureau in the world, and Mayorkas had 18,000 people under his supervision.
The National Law Journal has named Mayorkas as one of the 50 most influential minority lawyers in America.
References
- ^ Fox, Tom (July 21, 2010). "Immigration Services head: From Havana to Washington D.C." The Washington Post. Retrieved July 10, 2012.
- Emmis Communications (May 1999). Los Angeles Magazine. Emmis Communications. p. 30. ISSN 15229149 Parameter error in {{issn}}: Invalid ISSN.. Retrieved 10 July 2012.
- ^ "Alejandro Mayorkas, Director, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services". U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Retrieved July 10, 2012.
- ^ Rohrlich, Ted (March 26, 2002). "Informants Named Vignali's Father". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved July 10, 2012.
- ^ "Obama picks Alejandro Mayorkas to head Immigration agency". Daily News, Los Angeles. May 1, 2009. Retrieved July 10, 2012.
- ^ Carrie Budoff Brown (November 14, 2008). "Clinton scandal figure on Justice team". Politico. Retrieved July 10, 2012.