Mayorkas on Biden Administration Performance at Southern Border: 'I Think that We Are Doing a Good Job'

During an appearance on Sunday’s broadcast of ABC’s “This Week,” Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas downplayed what has been panned as a lackluster effort by the Biden administration at the U. S.-Mexico border.

Mayorkas told anchor Martha Raddatz he thought the Biden administration was doing a “good job.”

During an appearance on Sunday’s broadcast of ABC’s “This Week,” Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas downplayed what has been panned as a lackluster effort by the Biden administration at the U. S.-Mexico border.

Mayorkas told anchor Martha Raddatz he thought the Biden administration was doing a “good job.”

RADDATZ: What is the plan on the border? You really do have migrants flooding that area. The peak was during the Trump administration, May of 2019, at 144,000 crossings. In May of this year, you hit 240,000 crossings. You may be telling people to stay away, but they keep coming.

MAYORKAS: I think we saw the tragic result of people taking the dangerous journey in San Antonio just recently, when 53 people lost their lives in the most horrific of conditions in the back of a trailer truck.

We continue to warn people not to take the dangerous journey. We are enforcing our laws. And we are working with countries to the south, including our close partner, Mexico, but with Guatemala, Honduras, Panama, Costa Rica, Colombia, to really address the migration that is throughout the Western Hemisphere.

These are remarkably distinct times, and we have a multifaceted approach, not only to work with our partner countries but to bring law enforcement to bear, to attack the smuggling organizations in an unprecedented way. We are doing so very much. Ultimately, however — ultimately, because the border has been a challenge for decades — ultimately, Congress must pass legislation to once and for all fix our broken immigration system.

RADDATZ: But — but, Mr. Secretary, that does not look likely. And you have Congressmen Henry Cuellar saying that only about 30% of the Border Patrol are doing missions at checkpoints and the border because the other 70% are tied up at detention centers. How do you fix that? Again, the message is not getting out.

MAYORKAS: Well, we are continuing to deliver that message, and we will continue to do so. And for the first time since 2011, the president’s fiscal year 2023 budget calls for 300 more Border Patrol agents. And we are hiring case processers. We are addressing this issue vigorously and aggressively, to ad... (Read more)

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