GOP Sens. Mitt Romney, Rob Portman OK Joe Biden’s Amnesty Chief

Alejandro Mayorkas, nominee to be Secretary of Homeland Security testifies during his conf
JOSHUA ROBERTS/AFP via Getty Images
Neil Munro

GOP Sens. Mitt Romney and Rob Portman joined with five Democrats Tuesday to allow President Joe Biden’s amnesty chief to get an up-or-down confirmation vote on the Senate floor.

The two GOP senators changed the result to a seven-to-four committee approval for Alejandro Mayorkas, putting him on a path to a narrow confirmation in the Senate. Once confirmed, he can use his extensive experience to write regulations that will implement many of Biden’s amnesty and cheap labor policies, regardless of what the voters or Congress prefer.

Those promised regulatory policies include a series of measures that will flood the college graduate labor market with myriad foreign visa workers.

Romney (R-UT) explained his vote for Mayorkas, who is expected to put many illegal immigrants on a fast track to green cards and citizenship:

He acknowledged to me that … he recognized that [his EB-5 intervention] was an error, that it created a concern within his organization and he lost credibility as a result of that. … People who identify errors, recognize them, and are willing to take a different course in the future, are people who I generally will support.

Sen. Rob Portman, (R-OH), who announced January 25 he will not run for reelection in 2022, explained his vote for Mayorkas:

This is a tough one — we do need to have someone in place and accountable … [In prior years] I found him to be someone that did listen to both sides. And in terms of policy orientation, I found him to be — as compared to other officials in the Obama administration — more toward the middle … So he’s going to be confirmed. The question is how quickly does he get in place, and do some of us say, “Okay, we’re going to vote for you but we’re also going to be watching.”

Both Romney and Portman suggested they might vote against Mayorkas’s confirmation in the floor vote.

If they do vote against Mayorkas, their votes likely will not matter because the Democrats can get 51 votes to win his confirmation.

“It is disheartening that the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee has normalized corruption to the point that they would vote to confirm Mr. Mayorkas as DHS Secretary,” said a statement from Rosemary Jenks, director of government relations at NumbersUSA. “Not only has he been proven corrupt [by the EB-5 scandal], he also has made clear that he believes himself to be above the law and not required to enforce it as Congress has written it. This is a dangerous precedent for the Department of Homeland Security.”

Democrats downplayed the EB-5 scandal and dodged the amnesty and labor issues. Instead, they portrayed Mayorkas as a modest, non-partisan bureaucrat who will help stabilize the nation’s cyberdefenses and deal with domestic security concerns. Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI) said:

Our nation is facing historic security challenges, right now, from the recent attack on our capital, two major cyber-breaches of our federal agencies, and a pandemic that continues to take the lives of thouands of Americans every day. These are serious challenges, and we need steady qualified and experienced leaders at DHS to address them.

The five GOP senators who voted against Mayorkas were Sens. Ron Johnson, James Lankford, Josh Hawley, and Rick Scott, and Rand Paul. Paul’s vote did not count because was not in the room.

The GOP senators who spoke against Mayorkas focused their criticism on his decision in 2011 to override bureaucrats’ rejection of citizenship-for-sale EB-5 deals that involved top Democrats. For example, Johnson said:

This investigation had 15 [whistleblowers]. That so many individuals were willing to step forward and tell us what happened is evidence of deep resentment about Mr. Mayorkas’ actions related to the EB -5 program. The letter go on: “Their allegations were unequivocal: Mr. Mayaorkas gave special access and treatment to certain individuals and parties. They told us he created special processes and revised existing policies in the EB-5 program to accommodate specific parties. According to employees, but for Mr. Mayorkas’ actions, the career staff would have decided these matters differently.

This focus on Mayorkas’s EB-5 decisions allowed the GOP senators to dodge the much bigger issue of how Biden’s unpopular immigration policies will damage the employment and income of many millions of blue-collar and white-collar Americans.

Sen. Rick Scott, (R-FL), used his speech to denounce Biden’s policy of loose border security — but also to endorse legal immigration:

I’ve been very clear as a member of the committee what is important to me when it comes to the position of DHS secretary: It is securing the border, fixing our long-broken immigration system by prioritizing legal immigration, and finding a permanent solution to DACA and TPS … Florida is an immigration state. We love immigration, but it has to be legal …

If Congress wants to find genuine consensus and permanent solutions, we have to start with securing the border, protecting American workers, and implementing safeguards against bad actors and those seeking to break our laws. I cannot support nominees and policies that will erase the gains we have fought for when it comes to securing the border.

Since immigration was expended in 1990 by President Gorge H. Bush, the huge infusion of foreign migrants has gradually reduced the GOP’s clout in Congress as various states turn blue and elect Democrats. This demographic change has converted several GOP states — California, New Jersey, and Virginia, for example — into Democratic strongholds.

On January 5, 2021, the demographic change finally put 52 GOP senators out of their jobs.

On that day, two wealthy GOP senators lost their seats in Georgia — so forcing the remaining 50 GOP senators out of their jobs as members of the Senate majority.

Democrats are now using that GOP loss to grab more power. For example, Biden’s amnesty bill calls for putting at least three million illegal migrants into the polling booths in 2024.

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