Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas acknowledged “in hindsight” that executive actions could have been taken to address the “irresponsible policies” that led to the deaths Non-partisan border negotiations.
CBS “Face the Nation” host Margaret Brennan pressed Mayorkas on Sunday about why President Biden waited just five months until the final election issue implementing regulations to stem the flow at the border.
Mayorkas insisted that the administration had pressured Congress to act on the border and continued to blame politicians for preventing passage of border funding.
DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas defended the administration’s border measures on “Face the Nation” on Sunday. (CBS News screenshot)
Incoming border czar Tom Homan assures CNN that the deportations will come on the first day.
“Remember where we were when the president took office,” Mayorkas said. “We were in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic. The previous administration had implemented Title 42, which is a public health agency, and allowed us to expel individuals and continue to expel individuals at the border as the previous administration had done. “There was tremendous pressure, the way it worked of Title 42, which we maintained until May 2023.”
He continued: “We then turned to Congress and asked for additional funding that was desperately needed to make our administration of a broken immigration system work much better. We were rejected. We went back to Congress a second time and requested additional appropriations.” We then turned to bipartisan negotiations, which proved successful, but were then derailed by irresponsible politics.
A bipartisan border bill failed in the Senate earlier this year. (Justin Hamel/Getty Images)
The “cross-party negotiations” referred to a Senate border bill negotiated by Republican Senator James Lankford, Oklahoma, and Democratic Senators Chris Murphy, Connecticut, and Senator Kyrsten Sinema, Arizona. Although the White House has largely blamed Republicans for blocking passage of the bill, the bill failed to advance in the Senate by a 43-50 vote with bipartisan opposition.
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“As we now look back at 2020, if we had known that irresponsible policies would have undermined a clearly meritorious effort and result, we may have taken executive action more quickly,” Mayorkas said.
Mayorkas has testified that the border remains secure despite record crossings. (AP/Mark Schiefelbein)
Still in April 2023, Mayorkas insisted the border was “secure.” despite record numbers of border crossings during the Biden administration. This was a claim he repeated despite Republicans’ scorn and ridicule.
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