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Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, who narrowly escaped impeachment final week, stated Sunday that the Biden administration does not “bear responsibility for a broken system,” demanding Congress enact laws to mitigate what has turn out to be an unlawful migration disaster throughout this election yr.
“No doubt there is gridlock in Congress. But do you bear responsibility for what is happening at the border with the president himself? It’s called a crisis,” NBC host Kristen Welker requested throughout an interview with Mayorkas on “Meet the Press.”
“It certainly is a crisis. And we don’t bear responsibility for a broken system. And we’re doing a tremendous amount within that broken system. But fundamentally … Congress is the only one who can fix it,” Mayorkas stated.
“There is no question that we have a broken system,” he added. “There is no question that we have a challenge, a crisis at the border. And there is no question that Congress needs to fix it. And we’re doing everything we can within that broken system, short of legislation to address what is a not just a challenge for the United States but one throughout our region.”
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Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas is sworn in throughout a House Homeland Security Committee listening to on Capitol Hill on Nov. 15, 2023. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
Since Mayorkas took the helm at the Department of Homeland Security three years in the past, Welker famous, the asylum case backlog has greater than tripled since 2019 and extra migrants have crossed the border illegally in 2023 than ever earlier than. She pointed to how Mayorkas himself has stated that greater than 85% of migrants crossing the border illegally are being launched into the U.S. as they await their courtroom dates.
“Let’s just put impeachment aside for a minute. Why do you deserve to keep your job, Mr. Secretary?” she requested.
“The data that you cite is a powerful example of why we need legislation to fix what everyone agrees is a broken immigration system,” Mayorkas stated. “Before the last three years, that case backlog, which is about 3 million cases, has been growing year over year over year. The time between when we encounter an individual at the border and the time of final adjudication of an asylum claim case has been years, five to seven years, for years and years.”
“I remember when I entered the Department of Homeland Security in 2009, we were wrestling with these very same issues. The system has not been fixed for 30 years. A bipartisan group of senators have now presented us with the tools and resources we need – bipartisan group. And yet, Congress killed it before even reading it,” he stated.
Mayorkas was referring to how the U.S. Senate on Wednesday didn’t cross a $118 billion supplemental spending settlement that included support for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, in addition to an bold border safety and immigration package deal that drew widespread opposition from conservative Republicans in each chambers since its launch simply days earlier. Wednesday’s vote was 50-49. It wanted 60 votes to cross. The vote went largely alongside social gathering traces, aside from 5 Democrat no votes and 4 Republicans voting sure.
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas (John Moore/Getty Images)
Welker pressed Mayorkas on why President Biden wouldn’t shut down the border instantly – as Republicans have referred to as on him to do – and “just let the courts try to stop him.”
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“We have taken executive actions already. We continuously review what options are available to us, but those are always challenged in the courts, and whether or not they see the light of day and actually are able to be operationalized is an open question,” Mayorkas stated. “That is why the bipartisan group of senators actually prepared and presented a piece of legislation that would … base it in statute, the ability to close the border for a limited period of time, an extreme measure, and would it would be immune from court challenge because it is statutorily based.”
“If it were done legislatively, no doubt you wouldn’t have these these legal challenges, but isn’t trying to do something better than doing nothing at all? Why doesn’t President Biden try to shut down the border? Are you encouraging him to do that?” Welker insisted.
The Texas National Guard sends migrants again to the Rio Grande after they crossed into El Paso, Texas, from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, on Feb. 8, 2024. (Justin Hamel/Bloomberg by way of Getty Images)
“Well, we have already taken important steps. We certainly haven’t done nothing. I will tell you, we issued a regulation that circumvention of lawful pathways that increased, that actually created a rebuttable presumption of ineligibility for asylum seekers if they did not avail themselves of the lawful pathways that we built. And so we’ve done a tremendous amount. It’s very important to remember we have removed, returned or expelled more individuals in the past three years than the prior administration did in all four.”
Asked if he was contemplating reinstating the Remain in Mexico coverage on Sunday, Mayorkas informed Welker, “First of all, it depends upon Mexico’s agreement. And Mexico has articulated publicly that it will not allow the re-implementation of Remain in Mexico, number one. Number two, it’s been challenged in the courts. And number three, remember something, that Remain in Mexico was implemented in January of 2019. In 2019, there was almost a 100% increase in the number of encounters at our southwest border over 2018.”
The Republican-led House of Representatives on Tuesday didn’t impeach Mayorkas over his dealing with of the disaster at the southern border. It was thought-about a crushing defeat for the Republican majority, which held hearings all through 2023 on Mayorkas’ obvious “dereliction of duty” and extra hearings on the impeachment articles themselves this yr.
Lawmakers accused Mayorkas of disregarding federal legislation with “open border policies” which have made the ongoing disaster at the southern border worse. They have pointed to the rolling again of Trump-era insurance policies, like border wall development and Remain in Mexico, and lowering inside enforcement and increasing “catch-and-release.” They say it has fueled file numbers at the southern border, breaching the 300,000 mark in December.
Fox News’ Elizabeth Elkind and Adam Shaw contributed to this report.
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