Former Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas To Join IOP as Fall Fellow

Former Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro N. Mayorkas is slated to join Harvard’s Institute of Politics as a resident fellow this fall, according to a person familiar with the process.

A Harvard Kennedy School spokesperson did not deny Mayorkas’ appointment in a statement, writing that “the Institute of Politics looks forward to announcing its full, bipartisan slate of incoming resident fellows later this summer towards the start of the academic year.”

The person was granted anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the confidential selection process for the IOP’s fall fellows.

Mayorkas’ appointment will bring one of the most prominent former Biden administration officials to the IOP, placing a central figure in the national fight over immigration and border security in front of Harvard undergraduates just months after he left office.

His appointment will also come during a leadership transition at the IOP. The Kennedy School named Betsy Fischer Martin, the former “Meet the Press” executive producer, as the IOP’s next director on Monday. She will begin her tenure in mid-August, succeeding interim co-directors Ned C. Price and Beth E. Myers.

Resident fellows facilitate eight-week study groups during the semester, in addition to mentoring undergraduates and holding weekly office hours.

Mayorkas led the Department of Homeland Security from 2021 to 2025, becoming the first Latino and the first immigrant confirmed to run the department. A political refugee born in Havana, Cuba, he arrived in the United States as a child in 1960 after his family fled the Cuban Revolution.

Before his appointment as secretary, Mayorkas served as deputy secretary of Homeland Security from 2013 to 2016 and as director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services from 2009 to 2013, where he oversaw the rollout of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.

His tenure atop DHS was defined by sustained Republican criticism of the Biden administration’s handling of the U.S.-Mexico border. In February 2024, the House voted 214-213 to impeach Mayorkas over his handling of border enforcement, making him the first Cabinet secretary to be impeached in nearly 150 years. The Senate dismissed the charges that April without holding a trial.

Mayorkas is no stranger to the IOP. In March 2025, weeks after leaving office, he appeared at the John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum for a conversation on immigration policy — his first public appearance since the end of his tenure.

At the forum, Mayorkas struck a moderate tone, arguing that his tenure had “upheld our nation’s identity as one of laws as well as one of immigrants.” He drew attention for calling sanctuary cities “irresponsible” and faulting local leaders who declined to cooperate with immigration authorities.

The IOP has brought several other high-profile former Biden administration officials to campus in recent semesters, including former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg ’04 as a visiting fellow this spring and former Education Secretary Miguel A. Cardona and former Biden senior adviser Mike Donilon as resident fellows.

—Staff writer Jen L. Phan can be reached at [email protected] and Signal at jenphan.74. Follow her on X at @jenllphan.