By Steve Neavling

Sen. Josh Hawley blocked the fast-track confirmation process for President-elect Joe Biden’s Homeland Security director pick Alejandro Mayorkas. 

“I cannot consent to skip the standard vetting process and fast-track this nomination when so many questions remain unanswered,” the Missouri Republican said in a statement, The Los Angeles Times reports.

Hawley said he had concerns with Biden’s immigration proposal. 

“Mr. Mayorkas has not adequately explained how he will enforce federal law and secure the southern border given President-elect Biden’s promise to roll back major enforcement and security measures,” Hawley said. “Just today, he declined to say he would enforce the laws Congress has already passed to secure the border wall system.”

When Biden announced his nominee in November, he said Mayorkas “will play a critical role in fixing our broken immigration system and understands that living up to our values and protecting our nation’s security aren’t mutually exclusive — and under his leadership, they’ll go hand-in-hand.”

Biden was hoping for a quick confirmation because of the numerous national security issues facing the country.

Mayorkas, 61, is poised to become the first immigrant and Hispanic to lead the department. 

Mayorkas served as deputy homeland security secretary from 2013 to 2016 under President Obama. A former U.S. attorney in California, Mayorkas also served as director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services during Obama’s first term. 

Born in Cuba, Mayorkas and her family arrived as refugees in the 1960s, settling in Southern California. His mother was a Holocaust survivor. Mayorkas graduated from the University of California-Berkeley and earned a law degree from Loyola Law School. 

By Steve Neavling

Kieran Ramsey has been named special agent in charge of the FBI’s Portland Field Office. 

Most recently, Ramsey was the director of the FBI Hostage Recovery Fusion Cell (HRFC) in the Counterterrorism Division at FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C.

In 1998, Ramsey joined the bureau as a special agent in the Seattle Field Office, where he served on a public corruption task force, an organized crime squad, and the Seattle Joint Terrorism Task Force. Ramsey also was the senior leader of Seattle’s Evidence Response Team and deployed to the World Trade Center after 9/11.

In 2005, Ramsey became supervisory special agent and worked in the Counterterrorism HUMINT Operations Unit at FBI headquarters. 

In 2007, he was promoted to legal attaché in Cairo, where he served as the principal FBI official for U.S. embassies in Egypt, Sudan, and Libya.

In 2019, Ramsey was tapped as supervisory senior resident agent of the New Hampshire offices under the Boston Field Office, where he also directed the New Hampshire Safe Streets Task Force and the New Hampshire Joint Terrorism Task Force. 

In 2013, he became assistant special agent in charge of the Boston’s Counterterrorism Branch and led the Boston Marathon Bombing Task Force.

In 2017, he served as legal attaché in Rome in 2017, covering Italy, The Holy See, and Malta. 

Ramsey was promoted to section chief in 2018 and named the director of the Hostage Recovery Fusion Cell (MRFC), an interagency that leads the U.S. government’s efforts to recover U.S. national hostages held abroad.

Before joining the bureau, Ramsey was a special agent with the U.S. Customs Service. He received a bachelor’s degree from Northeastern University in Boston and a master’s degree from Georgetown University in Washington.