According to a new report, “when influential Democrats with stakes in different investment groups needed help securing visas as part of a complicated foreign investor program, they sought out a fellow Democrat who just happened to be in charge of the immigration agency overseeing their applications.” The Associated Press,
Homeland Security Deputy Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, the head of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services at the time, took up their causes, according to a report by the Homeland Security Department’s inspector general. Investigators say Mayorkas improperly intervened in three cases involving prominent Democrats, including a company run by the youngest brother of likely Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton.
In the report released Tuesday, investigators said Mayorkas helped efforts to secure the visas in ways that created the appearance of favoritism and special access. That, in turn, caused resentment among career government employees, managers and lawyers.
The agency’s inspector general, John Roth, said he could not suggest a motive for Mayorkas, a longtime Democrat who served on President Barack Obama’s transition team after his 2008 election and was U.S. attorney in California under President Bill Clinton. Roth did not accuse Mayorkas of violating any laws and acknowledged that Mayorkas sometimes declined to become involved in cases because he said he did not think it would be appropriate.
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