[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 17 (Thursday, January 28, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S190-S191]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               NOMINATION OF ALEJANDRO NICHOLAS MAYORKAS

  Mr. GRASSLEY. Madam President, the Senate is considering the 
nomination of Mr. Mayorkas to serve as Secretary of Homeland Security. 
I come to the floor at this point, before we vote on that motion today, 
to raise questions about whether or not he should be in that position 
as Secretary of Homeland Security and the fact that I will be voting 
negative.
  I am familiar with Mr. Mayorkas from my past oversight of the EB-5 
investment visa program. From 2009 until 2013, Mr. Mayorkas served as 
Director of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, which 
administers that EB-5 visa program.
  During that time, more than 15 whistleblowers approached my office to 
raise questions about Mr. Mayorkas and his management of the EB-5 
program. The whistleblowers allege that Mr. Mayorkas was intervening in 
routine and technical matters that were not typically handled by the 
Director of that Division. They also alleged that he was doing so at 
the request of well-connected Democratic politicians and other 
politically connected stakeholders.
  As my colleagues are aware, I have long criticized the fraud and 
abuse that are rampant in the EB-5 program, and I have continually 
reintroduced bipartisan legislation with Senator Leahy to reform the 
program. So it shouldn't be a surprise to any of my colleagues that 
when I hear from 15 different whistleblowers anything about the EB-5 
program, I would further investigate it.
  I have also conducted consistent oversight of the EB-5 program across 
Presidential administrations, whether they were Democrat or Republican. 
So when whistleblowers approach my office with these serious 
allegations, as I said before, I am determined to get to the bottom of 
these matters.
  One of the cases in which whistleblowers said Mr. Mayorkas had 
intervened involved a company with ties to former Secretary Clinton's 
brother, Anthony Rodham.
  Mr. Rodham's company wasn't happy with the speed with which its 
applications were being conducted by the Customs and Immigration 
Service, so company representatives made repeated inquiries to the 
Department of Homeland Security and Mr. Mayorkas. And they did this in 
an effort to get Mr. Mayorkas to speed things up.
  My investigation found that between 2010 and 2013, Mr. Mayorkas had 
nearly a dozen contacts with that company, including direct 
communications with its attorneys. Mr. Mayorkas forwarded requests from 
the company along to his team, marking at least one of those forwarded 
messages as ``high priority.'' He became heavily involved in the 
process of revising a draft of a technical decision from his Division's 
Administrative Appeals Office that was initially unfavorable to the 
company. So, because of his involvement, in the end, th opinion was 
rewritten in a manner that was much more favorable to Mr. Rodham's 
company.

  In 2013, I wrote Mr. Mayorkas five letters about his management of 
the EB-5 program. In those letters, I asked him detailed questions in 
order to get his side of the story, and when he didn't answer my 
initial questions, I wrote him repeatedly to follow up.
  At this point, it has been more than 7 years, and I still have not 
received answers to more than 25 specific questions that I asked during 
that 2013 investigation.
  Following his nomination to serve as Department of Homeland Security 
Secretary, I wrote to Mr. Mayorkas again on January 15 to raise my 
concerns and to provide him yet another opportunity to answer my 
questions. He sent me a very short response on January 19 that--can you 
believe this?--still failed to answer most of the questions that I was 
trying to get answers for.
  It is very important for nominees confirmed by this body to be 
responsive to congressional oversight requests. Mr. Mayorkas 
consistently refused to respond to my questions, and that should 
concern all of us in the U.S. Senate because no Senator should be 
denied answers to his questions doing proper oversight of the executive 
branch.
  Furthermore, we now know that many of the whistleblower allegations 
made to my office were accurate. Many whistleblowers who approached my 
office raised similar concerns with John Roth, the Obama-appointed 
inspector general at the Department of Homeland Security at that time, 
who released his office's report detailing its investigation into these 
matters way back in 2015.
  In that 2015 report, Inspector General Roth found that ``employees' 
belief that Mr. Mayorkas favored certain politically powerful EB-5 
stakeholders was reasonable.'' That is the end of quote of the 
inspector general's report.
  The IG also said that the number and variety of witnesses who came 
forward in his investigation was ``highly unusual.'' Allegations didn't 
come from one or two disgruntled employees, according to the inspector 
general; they came from current and retired career and noncareer 
members of the Senior Executive Service, as well as all levels of 
supervisors, immigration officers, attorneys, and employees involved in 
fraud detection and in national security.
  According to Inspector General Roth, the fact ``[t]hat so many 
individuals were willing to step forward and tell . . . what happened 
[was] evidence of deep resentment about Mr. Mayorkas's actions related 
to the EB-5 program.'' That is the end of quote from the IG report.
  The IG also found that Mr. Mayorkas's actions ``created an appearance 
of favoritism and special access'' in some EB-5 adjudication matters 
and that he ``created specific processes and revised existing policies 
in the EB-5 program to accommodate specific parties.''
  In addition to the case involving Mr. Rodham's company, other cases 
reviewed by the inspector general involved well-connected Democrats, 
including former Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell and then-Senate 
Majority Leader Harry Reid.
  In each of the cases reviewed by the inspector general where Mr. 
Mayorkas had intervened, the IG found that ``but for Mr. Mayorkas's 
intervention, the matter would have been decided differently.''
  Witnesses were also fearful, and some only spoke to the IG after 
being assured of anonymity. One whistleblower told my office they were 
extremely uncomfortable in meetings with Mr. Mayorkas.
  Mr. Mayorkas's actions raised serious concerns in 2013 when he was 
nominated to serve as Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security during 
President Obama's second term. It is why he couldn't be confirmed to 
that role until after then-Majority Leader Harry Reid invoked the 
nuclear option on nominations. Not a single Republican Senator was 
willing to support his confirmation then, and no Senator should support 
it at this time.

[[Page S191]]

  Finally, I am concerned that Mr. Mayorkas did not seem to express any 
regret whatsoever for his previous actions during his recent 
confirmation hearing before the Homeland Security Committee. Instead, 
he appeared to take the view that interfering in EB-5 cases on behalf 
of well-connected politicians and stakeholders was somehow the same as 
casework help offered to Americans who experienced problems with the 
international adoption systems. It was a baffling comparison.
  Now, every one of us Senators knows that when a nominee for the 
Cabinet or Subcabinet comes before our committee, they are always asked 
questions by Senators--for sure, I do it: Will you respond to our 
oversight letters, phone calls, or appearing before our committee? And 
every one of them says yes, but not every one of them--how would you 
say it? Not every one of them keeps their word, I guess is what I 
should say. So I suggest to them, if you really want to be honest to 
take that oath to answer in an honest fashion, maybe when you have that 
question asked, ``Will you respond to requests from committee members 
in our oversight work?'' you ought to say ``maybe'' instead of saying 
``yes.''
  Anyway, I think it is very clear that I strongly oppose Mr. 
Mayorkas's confirmation, and I urge all of my colleagues to reject it 
as well.
  Thank you.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Maine.

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