Thread: Alejandro Mayorkas picked to head immigration agency

This is a May 1 article. If it is a duplicate, I apologize and please lock.

Alejandro Mayorkas picked to head immigration agency

(photo) Alejandro Mayorkas, shown in 1990, is named to take the helm of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, which will play a central role in the Obama administration's promised overhaul of U.S. immigration policy.

The former U.S. attorney played a role in a 2001 decision by President Clinton to commute a drug dealer's prison sentence.

By Josh Meyer
May 1, 2009

Reporting from Washington -- A former top Los Angeles federal prosecutor who was involved in a Clinton-era clemency controversy has been tapped to head an influential Department of Homeland Security immigration agency.

Alejandro Mayorkas is President Obama's pick to be director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, which adjudicates a broad range of immigration and naturalization issues and oversees international adoptions, asylum, refugee status and foreign student authorization.

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"Alejandro's expertise covers a wide array of issues critical to the department, including law enforcement, civil rights, computer crime and international money laundering," Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said in a statement Thursday.

Born in Cuba, Mayorkas was the U.S. attorney for the Central District of California from 1998 to 2001. He since has served as a litigation partner at the Los Angeles-based law firm O'Melveny and Myers, where he represents large corporations and other clients in high-profile cases here and overseas.

The White House noted in a statement that Mayorkas, who was on Obama's justice and law enforcement transition team, was named one of the 50 most influential minority lawyers in America by the National Law Journal.

Robert C. Bonner -- a former federal judge, U.S. attorney in Los Angeles and the first commissioner of Customs and Border Protection -- said Mayorkas had the skills to run the overburdened and underfunded agency, which will play a central role in the Obama administration's promised overhaul of U.S. immigration policy.

Among the proposed changes are a path to citizenship for as many as 12 million people living in the country illegally. That would place tremendous burdens on an immigration and citizenship agency already plagued by delays, processing backlogs and a lack of the modernized technology needed to keep pace with demand, Bonner said.

"Improving the capabilities of CIS is critical to dealing with immigration reform," said Bonner, who is now in private practice in Los Angeles. "I have the highest regard for Ali, who is the right person and at the right time to make CIS functional. He has the personal and management skills that will be needed for what is one of the most difficult jobs in Washington."

Mayorkas also was one of several prominent Southern California political figures who played a role in a 2001 decision by President Clinton to commute a drug dealer's prison sentence.

Carlos Vignali was convicted in 1994 for his role in a drug ring that delivered more than 800 pounds of cocaine -- worth about $5 million at the time -- from Los Angeles to Minneapolis. He was released after serving less than half of his 14 1/2 -year sentence when Clinton included him among 176 clemency cases that he granted in his last few hours in office.

The move sparked outrage among federal prosecutors in Minneapolis, who had lobbied aggressively against any commutation for Vignali. They said Mayorkas had called them twice to ask questions about the case.

Vignali's father, Horacio, was a wealthy Los Angeles businessman and developer who had contributed more than $160,000 to many Latino political figures in Southern California; he persuaded some of them to lobby the White House for his son's early release.

Mayorkas later admitted phoning the White House counsel's office at the urging of the elder Vignali.

A subsequent congressional investigation criticized Mayorkas, saying it was improper for a senior law enforcement official to be lobbying for such a commutation, especially for someone convicted in another district.

Mayorkas apologized. "It is reasonable to expect that someone in my position would do his or her due diligence to learn that information" about Vignali, he told the Los Angeles Times in 2001. "I made a mistake."

In a brief telephone interview Thursday, Mayorkas said he could not discuss the pending appointment, which has not been made official.

Melanie Sloan, executive director of the public interest watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, said that it was highly unusual for a top federal prosecutor to seek clemency for a convicted drug dealer and that Mayorkas had not fully addressed why he intervened in the case.

"That makes him a questionable appointment for any government job," Sloan said. "We're owed an explanation as to what he did and why he did it. I accept that there could be a good reason, but it must be shared publicly."

josh.meyer@latimes.com

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld ... 3675.story

Vignali's father, Horacio, was a wealthy Los Angeles businessman and developer who had contributed more than $160,000 to many Latino political figures in Southern California; he persuaded some of them to lobby the White House for his son's early release.

There is the reason

May 04, 2009
OUTRAGE: Obama's Choice for Immigration Chief Got Clinton to Commute Drug Kingpin's Sentence, Likely Took Bribes

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By Debbie Schlussel

Why did Barack Obama pick a man who got a drug kingpin out of prison, as the top man deciding who becomes a U.S. citizen?

Remember when President Clinton commuted the 15 year sentence for drug kingpin Carlos Vignali? Vignali served only about 6 years of his sentence, less than half of what he was supposed to serve for transporting 800 pounds of cocaine to Minnesota to be converted for sale as crack.

Vignali, Hispanic and the son of a wealthy Democratic campaign donor, barely did any time, while the small fish who worked for him--most of them Black and poor--continued to serve long sentences.
alejandromayorkas.jpgcarlosvignali.jpg
New Obama Immigration Chief Alejandro Mayorkas
Sprung Drug Kingpin Carlos Vignali From Prison

Well, the reason Clinton commuted Vignali's sentence was a man named Alejandro Mayorkas, then the U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California. Mayorkas called Clinton and his Justice Department lobbying for Vignali's commutation and release from federal prison to freedom. A subsequent Congressional investigation criticized his actions in this episode. Who knows how much money Vignali's father paid Mayorkas for this successful effort? The senior Vignali paid Hillary Clinton's bro, Hugh Rodham, over $200K to lobby his Brother-in-Law-in-Chief to do the same kind of lobbying as Mayorkas did for Vignali's freedom. Even the Latino Polics blog believes that Mayorkas took a pay-off from Horacio Vignali, believed to be his son's drug supplier.

Now, Barack Hussein Obama has nominated this corrupt figure, Mayorkas, to head of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS)--the agency which decides who becomes a U.S. citizen and who does not, the agency which gives out green cards, certain visas, and other immigration benefits.

From a 2002 L.A. Times article on Mayorkas' outrageous behavior:

Federal agents for more than 20 years suspected that a wealthy Los Angeles businessman, who recruited top Southern California law enforcement officials to persuade President Clinton to free his cocaine-dealing son, was involved in drug trafficking.

Horacio Vignali gained national attention last year as the dedicated father who successfully enlisted Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca, former U.S. Atty. Alejandro Mayorkas and a host of elected officials in a longshot bid to win the early release of his son. Clinton eventually freed Carlos Vignali, who had served six years of a 15-year sentence for dealing kilos of cocaine.

A congressional inquiry into pardons and commutations granted by Clinton on his last day in office turned up confidential federal law enforcement reports containing unproven allegations that the elder Vignali also was in the cocaine business. One informant told the federal Drug Enforcement Administration that Vignali was his son's supplier. . . .

Yet the report raises pointed questions about whether local law enforcement leaders should have checked Vignali's background before describing him to the White House as a man of the highest integrity.

In the drug trial of his son, Carlos, prosecutors said the defendant showed no interest in making a deal for a lesser prison term by revealing who supplied him with the cocaine and instead went to trial despite strong evidence against him.

Todd Jones, the former U.S. attorney in Minneapolis, where the young Vignali was prosecuted, said investigators and prosecutors suspected "he did not want to snitch on his dad" or someone else very close to him.

"That's just logic," Jones said. "We knew it [the drug conspiracy] did not end with this 21-year-old kid, so obviously there was someone close to him that he was extremely loyal to and that he was willing to go to prison for, for a long time." . . .

[T]he House Committee on Government Reform . . . cited [that] this month in a report critical of Southern California politicians and the two law enforcement leaders who helped Vignali persuade Clinton.

The committee said Baca and Mayorkas would have had access to law enforcement files and should have checked them.

Do you really think Mayorkas will do a better job checking the backgrounds of aliens seeking permanent legal residence in America?

Think again. If the price is right, he's apparently the go to guy to get your inconvenient background "conveniently overlooked."

Predictably, clueless Homeland Security chief Janet Napolitano a/k/a "The Lesbionic Woman" thinks this is just terrif:

"I am proud to announce President Obama's intent to nominate Alejandro Mayorkas as U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Director. . . .

Alejandro's expertise covers a wide array of issues critical to the Department.

Uh-huh, like helping drug kingpins get out of the big house. This isn't a source of pride. It's an embarrassment.

Do we really want a guy who helped get a drug kingpin out of federal prison, deciding that people with similar people will get U.S. citizenship?

Well, with 60 votes in the U.S. Senate, we'll likely have no choice. I guess we shouldn't be surprised. After all, Obama's Attorney General, Eric Holder, also was instrumental in the Vignali commutation. Let's see if--unlike at the Holder confirmation hearings--any U.S. Senator has the guts to ask Mayorkas about his actions on behalf of the Vignalis. Doubtful.

Holder was right. We are a "nation of cowards." If we weren't, we'd hold Obama and his boys, Holder and Mayorkas, responsible for their disgusting soft on crime behavior, and they'd be living in disgrace, not holding cabinet and federal agency chief positions.

Nauseating.

America . . . desperate, but not serious.

Posted by Debbie at May 4, 2009 12:53 PM
http://www.debbieschlussel.com/archives ... ice_f.html

God help us...we've got to get this corrupt admin out of office asap.

Terrible choice. How do we get rid of him?