You Will Anyway: DHS finally has a director

Wednesday, February 3, 2021

DHS finally has a director

The Senate has confirmed Alejandro Mayorkas to lead the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), making him the first Latino and first immigrant to head the department responsible for enforcing U.S. immigration laws. The Senate on Tuesday confirmed Mayorkas in a 56-43 vote, despite opposition from Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell who urged Republicans to vote against Mayorkas’ confirmation due to a 2015 inspector general report that criticized Mayorkas for his mismanagement of a program that granted U.S. residency to foreign investors.

[...]

[S] ix GOP members voted with Democrats to break the filibuster allowing the confirmation to move forward.

[...]

Mayorkas, a Cuban American whose family fled the Fidel Castro-led revolution, served as deputy DHS secretary from 2013 to 2016 under former President Obama. He was also a former U.S. attorney in California and was director of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services under the Obama administration.

The confirmation comes as DHS has gone without a Senate-confirmed secretary since former Secretary Kirstjen Nielson left the role in 2019.

Mayorkas was the second Biden Cabinet nominee to be confirmed Tuesday, after senators voted in favor of Pete Buttigieg to head the Department of Transportation. Buttigieg is the first openly gay Senate-confirmed Cabinet member in U.S. history.

The Hill

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

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Life, as Explained in "Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead"

GUILDENSTERN: What a fine persecution---to be kept intrigued without ever quite being enlightened.

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ROSENCRANTZ : The only thing that makes it bearable is the irrational belief that somebody interesting will come on in a minute.

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GUILDENSTERN: But for God's sake what are we supposed to do?!

PLAYER: Relax. Respond. That's what people do. You can't go through life questioning your situation at every turn.

GUILDENSTERN: But we don't know what's going on, or what to do with ourselves. We don't know how to act.

PLAYER: Act natural. You know why you're here at least.

GUILDENSTERN: We only know what we're told, and that's little enough. And for all we know it isn't even true.

PLAYER: For all anyone knows, nothing is. Everything has to be taken on trust; truth is only that which is taken to be true. It's the currency of living. There may be nothing behind it, but it doesn't make any difference so long as it is honoured. One acts on assumptions.

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GUILDENSTERN : We act on scraps of information... sifting half-remembered directions that we can hardly separate from instinct.

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PLAYER: Life is a gamble, at terrible odds-if it was a bet you wouldn't take it.