Alejandro Mayorkas

Alejandro Mayorkas was sworn in as Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security on December 23, 2013. He is the second-in-command of the Department with a $60 billion budget and a workforce of 240,000 individuals throughout the world.

Prior to becoming the Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security, Mayorkas served as the Director of the Department’s United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), the agency charged with operating the largest immigration system in the world. He was nominated to serve in that position by President Barack Obama and confirmed by the United States Senate in 2009. As Director of USCIS, Mayorkas led a workforce of 18,000 individuals throughout more than 250 offices worldwide and oversaw a $3 billion annual budget. While at USCIS he developed a number of important programs and initiatives, including the implementation of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), and important reforms that safeguard our nation’s security and ensure the integrity of its immigration system.

Prior to his appointment at USCIS, Deputy Secretary Mayorkas was a partner in the law firm of O’Melveny & Myers LLP. In 2008, the National Law Journal recognized Deputy Secretary Mayorkas as one of the “50 Most Influential Minority Lawyers in America.”

In 1998, Deputy Secretary Mayorkas was nominated by President Clinton and confirmed by the United States Senate to be the United States Attorney for the Central District of California, becoming the youngest U.S. Attorney to serve the nation at that time. In addition to leading an office of 240 Assistant U.S. Attorneys, Mayorkas served as the Vice-Chair of the Attorney General’s Advisory Subcommittee on Civil Rights and as a member of the Subcommittee on Ethics in Government. From 1989 to 1998, Mayorkas served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California.

Deputy Secretary Mayorkas is a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley and received his law degree from Loyola Law School.