Biden’s Homeland Security Secretary Mayorkas dismisses claims there is a “crisis” at the border

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas faced difficult questions about the situation at the border – which he insisted Friday was not a crisis and was well managed.

“Well, we’ve seen the situation at the border being handled in an orderly manner, we’ve also seen it under extraordinarily challenging circumstances,” Mayorkas told CNN when asked if the border was in a “crisis.”

He spoke to thousands of migrants who cross the border every day amid uncertainty about the future of the Title 42 enforcement agency, a day after President Biden announced a plan to stop migrants from Cuba, Haiti and Nicaragua involved in illegally crossing the southern border were caught to be expelled quickly.

He told CNN’s Poppy Harlow: “Rest assured, Poppy, that we are doing everything we can to build a system that will deliver humanitarian assistance in a safe and orderly manner while we try to convince Congress fix the broken system.

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas again denied a “crisis” at the border and said the situation was “handled in an orderly manner”.

His interviewer pushed back, citing 2.4 million migrant encounters with authorities at the border. The administration relied on Title 42 authority, which is based on the pandemic, to send many of them home.

“I understand that, but that’s what you’re seeing, what you’ve seen in the 20 years you’ve been there, the record number of migrants at the southern border, and last year it was almost 2.4 million. If this isn’t a crisis, secretary, what is?’ Harlow asked him.

Mayorkas agreed with the numbers but blamed global movements of people.

“You know, Poppy, we’ve seen 2.4 million encounters on our southern border, and that reflects the world’s largest displacement since World War II,” he said. “It reflects a migration challenge that is sweeping the entire hemisphere.”

Mayorkas was grilled over 2.4 million encounters by migrants with authorities last year

President Joe Biden spoke on border security Thursday. On his way to Mexico he drives to El Paso on Sunday

He said Colombian leaders told him the country had taken in 2.4 million Venezuelans and that Nicaraguans were migrating to Costa Rica.

“We’re seeing a tremendous movement of people across the hemisphere,” he said.

He also defended Biden’s trip to the border, set for Sunday, after being repeatedly urged by his critics to leave. When asked why it took Biden two years, he replied that the administration has been committed to solving problems since “day one.”

“The President knows the border very well,” he continued. “He has had several visits from his Secretary of Homeland Security since the government’s inauguration, and this Sunday will not be the first time in his public service career that he will see the border, and I look forward to joining him there.”

That was a likely reference to his journey to the frontier as Barack Obama’s race in 2008. Biden spent decades in the Senate and served two terms as Vice President.

Mayorkas named the number of arrests and detentions as a success.

“We have made more than 7,000 arrests. We really have used countless resources, manpower, technology and investigative skills to break up these smuggling organizations, to dismantle them. You and I have both seen too many tragedies on the frontier. We’re just trying to build safe and legal trails,” he said.

Republicans are preparing to probe the government over its immigration problems.

“Under President Biden, the Border Patrol has become the welcoming committee. They’re begging for help to get their jobs done,” Assemblyman-elect James Comer (R-Ky.) said on the House Floor on Friday while nominating Kevin McCarthy for speaker.