Biden selects architect of DACA to lead DHS

Presumed President-elect Joseph R. Biden said Monday he wants Alejandro Mayorkas to lead the Homeland Security Department, tapping an Obama-era mainstay who helped create the DACA program that protected “Dreamers,” but was also part of the team that expanded family detention.

Mr. Mayorkas, born in Cuba, would be the first Hispanic person and first immigrant to head the department, created in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

He brings extensive experience at DHS, having served as chief at the legal-immigration agency and then deputy secretary for the entire department.

But his more than seven years in office also saw their share of controversy, with an inspector general finding he delivered favors in granting immigration visas at the request of high-powered Democrats. That’s likely to draw attention from Republicans.

He also was deputy secretary, under Secretary Jeh Johnson, when the department grappled with the first surge of migrant children and families in 2014 and 2015. The department dramatically expanded family detention — from 100 beds to 3,000 — and built the chain-link fence pens, now derided as “cages,” used to hold immigrants who were in the country illegally at the border.

Mr. Mayorkas was part of Mr. Biden‘s first list of nominations, which also included Antony Blinken as secretary of state, Linda Thomas-Greenfield as ambassador to the U.N. and Avril Haines as director of national intelligence.

Mr. Biden said he expects Mr. Mayorkas to be able to straddle both the humanitarian and security sides of the job at Homeland Security.