Story at a glance
- The Biden transition team on Monday announced plans to nominate Avril Haines for director of national intelligence and Alejandro Mayorkas to serve as Homeland Security secretary.
- Haines previously held top national security positions in the Obama administration and was the first woman to serve as deputy director of the CIA.
- Mayorkas, a Cuban American whose family fled the Fidel Castro-led revolution, served as deputy DHS secretary from 2013 to 2016.
President-elect Joe Biden on Monday revealed his picks for top national security positions, including the nomination of the first woman to oversee national intelligence and the first Latino and immigrant to head the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
The Biden transition team announced plans to tap Avril Haines for director of national intelligence and Alejandro Mayorkas to serve as Homeland Security secretary.
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Haines previously held top national security positions in the Obama administration. She served as deputy director of the CIA in 2013, the first woman to hold the position, and later served as Obama’s principal deputy national security adviser. From 2007 to 2008, she was deputy chief counsel to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee where Biden was chair. If confirmed, Haines will be the highest-ranking woman to serve in the intelligence community.
Mayorkas, a Cuban American whose family fled the Fidel Castro-led revolution, served as deputy DHS secretary from 2013 to 2016. He’s also a former U.S. attorney in California and was director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services under the Obama administration.
“When I was very young, the United States provided my family and me a place of refuge. Now, I have been nominated to be the DHS Secretary and oversee the protection of all Americans and those who flee persecution in search of a better life for themselves and their loved ones,” Mayorkas tweeted Monday.
If Mayorkas is confirmed, he will be the first Latino to head the department charged with managing the country’s immigration policies.
The president-elect will also nominate Linda Thomas-Greenfield, a Black woman, to become U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations. She’s currently part of Biden’s transition team and is a longtime diplomat. She was a foreign service officer in administrations dating back to President Reagan.
Biden’s picks underscore his commitment to make his administration one of the most diverse in U.S. history, in contrast to the predominantly white and male Trump administration cabinet.
“I need a team ready on Day One to help me reclaim America’s seat at the head of the table, rally the world to meet the biggest challenges we face, and advance our security, prosperity, and values,” Biden said in a statement.
“Their accomplishments in diplomacy are unmatched, but they also reflect the idea that we cannot meet the profound challenges of this new moment with old thinking and unchanged habits — or without diversity of background and perspective.”
Biden will formally announce the nominations Tuesday during a virtual event in Wilmington, Del.
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