In a recent change of events, President Joe Biden along with Department Security Head Alejandros Mayorkas just fired all 32 members of the Homeland Security Advisory Council. He wrote in a letter sent on Friday that he has ended the terms of current HSAC members and adds that this will be effective March 26, 2021.
“I am honored to address you as the new Secretary and to express my profound gratitude for your commitment to the Department of Homeland Security. You have demonstrated your commitment in different ways, including through your service as a Member of the Homeland Security Advisory Council (HSAC). Many of you have served on the HSAC for years,” the letters read.
Mayorkas goes on to write that he will be guiding the Department through a “period of change” and reconstitute the committee over the next few weeks. The move includes firing almost all members, including Democrats and Republicans, except for Chairman William Bratton, Vice Chair Karen Tandy, and Chair Emeritus Willian Webster, who will remain in their positions to help the council move forward.
The move comes with a surge of illegal immigrants at the border and after the state of Texas challenged Biden’s temporary halt on deportations. Mayorkas writes that he is trying to find a way that the Advisory Council can bring the “greatest value” to the department with members who can advance the process with expertise and judgment. Firing almost all members of a bipartisan panel right in the middle of a border crisis is not necessarily the best timing or approach under the Biden Administration – and almost everyone agrees.
Former Department of Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf, who worked the position under the Trump-era, adds that dismissing the entire council outright stops a lot of important work and is not the right approach to securing our homeland. House Homeland Security Member John Katko also adds that this is a clear sign that the administration has no intention of securing the homeland with a “bipartisan, unifying approach” and adds that the security leaders who have been removed from their positions spent their lives dedicated to this career.
What initiated this abrupt move? Homeland Security officials were warning and criticizing Biden that he was making moves harmful to the country. Now, Mayorkas can pick the advisory council he wants without any limitations or arguments presented by a bipartisan council. There’s no room for opinion or differing views in the Democrat Party.
Thousands continue to journey from Guatemala into Mexico and north of the U.S each day and the Biden Administration’s unprecedented move clearly presents that they are far more interested in selecting a council that agrees with the President than tackling any problems that lie ahead.
Talk about “unity.”
