.@JoeBiden‘s @DHSgov pick flagged by whistleblowers for preferential treatment with visas #JustTheNews @jsolomonReports https://t.co/XiuivUPWif
— Just the News (@JustTheNews) November 25, 2020
Joe Biden’s nominee to head the Department of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas, has been the subject of a complaint involving 15 whistleblowers that alleges Mayorkas showed preferential treatment when it came to administering EB-5 work-visa applications.
Mayorkas allegedly intervened to show special treatment to firms that “were prominent or politically connected” to high-ranking Democratic officials.
Allegations include:
- “[P]ressured staff” to expedite the review of a Las Vegas casino investment at the urging of the then-top Democrat in the Senate Harry Reid.
- Engaged in an “unprecedented” intervention to help a company chaired by former Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe
- Instructed USCIS to reverse a decision to deny EB-5 funding for Sony movie projects in Los Angeles after hearing from Pennsylvania’s former Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell.
According to a 2015 DHS Inspector General’s report:
“Staff witnessed Mr. Mayorkas inserting himself in unprecedented ways into an adjudicative process governed by statute, regulation, and USCIS policy. As a result of his deviation from the normal process, applicants and stakeholders with whom he had just been in contact received a specific benefit.”
The report added that the interventions “lowered morale of those involved” inside the agency, and that the they significantly altered the outcome of the cases.