How Secretary Mayorkas’s mother’s mantra guides the Department of Homeland Security
The homeland security secretary spoke at the Aspen Security Forum on Thursday
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U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas speaks at a press briefing at the White House on September 24, 2021, in Washington, D.C.
In a panel discussion at the Aspen Security Forum in Washington, D.C., yesterday, Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas spoke about the department’s focus on rooting out domestic extremists in its ranks and the lessons from his parents that he applies to his government work.
Mayorkas’s mother, who fled Europe for Cuba before the Holocaust, believed “that every day is a new life — that something tragic can occur, something magnificent can occur. By reason of that, we have an obligation to make ourselves better today than we were yesterday and better tomorrow than we are today,” Mayorkas told the several hundred attendees gathered at the InterContinental Hotel at the Wharf.
“We have an obligation at DHS to be better tomorrow than we are today, and we have to drive to that betterment. And so that very much influences how I am as a government employee,” he added.