The U.S. Homeland Security secretary said he’s not worried about setting a precedent on open borders by allowing thousands of unaccompanied minors to enter the country from Mexico.
Speaking on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Alejandro Mayorkas said immigration authorities are expelling families and single adults, but not children who cross the border alone.
“We will not expel orphaned children into the desert,” Mayorkas said. A major focus for the Biden administration, he said, is rebuilding “orderly systems” in Mexico and Central America to discourage would-be migrants from traveling to the U.S. border.
The Homeland chief is scheduled to speak on four Sunday-morning political talk shows as pressure mounts on the Biden administration over conditions at the U.S.-Mexico border.
Mayorkas on Friday traveled to El Paso, Texas, with two Democratic and two Republican senators to view first-hand the processing and housing for unaccompanied minors.
That closed out a week in which the White House heard from members of both parties describing the U.S. southwest border situation as a mess.
New Wave
Congressional Republicans blame Biden for policies they say are encouraging a new wave of immigrants. Mayorkas, and many Democrats, says fault lies with former President Donald Trump and his administration, which they argue left behind an inhumane and inadequate system to deal with influx.
Not in dispute is that the border crossings have quickly become a political liability for the two-month-old Biden administration, which now owns the responsibility to deal with the problems created. Lawmakers also are raising security and Covid-19 infections as issues.
Mayorkas’ trip on Friday was closed to the media. Neither of Texas’ two U.S. Senators, Republicans John Cornyn and Ted Cruz, accompanied him.
Still, Republican lawmakers are streaming to the southwest border to highlight the problems, including Senator Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, who plans to visit an Arizona border outpost on Sunday. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy has already made the trip with a group of GOP colleagues.
One of the two Republicans who traveled with Mayorkas on Friday, Senator Rob Portman of Ohio, tweeted about “dismantling” the Trump administration’s policies with no thought to the ramifications.
Democrat Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut, tweeted that he “fought back tears” from what he saw on the trip.
“The Biden Administration is trying their best to uphold the rule of law with humanity. They have a ton of work ahead to clean up the mess Trump left them, but their intentions are true,” tweeted Murphy.
Mayorkas had refused during an appearance Wednesday before the House Committee on Homeland Security to agree that the problems had reached the level of “a crisis,” further aggravating some Republicans.
The U.S. has seen a dramatic spike in the number of people encountered by border officials in recent weeks. That includes 18,945 family members encountered in February alone, an increase of 168% from January, according to the Pew Research Center.
Officials are looking for ways to boost capacity to house and care for migrants now in federal custody.
Axios reported Saturday that the Biden administration has awarded an $86 million contract for hotel rooms near the border to hold about 1,200 migrant family members. The Washington Post reported that customs officials are considering flying migrants to states near the Canadian border for processing.
Speaking at the House panel, Mayorkas cast the problems on the U.S.-Mexico frontier as “unprecedented.” He said the administration was working to swiftly address what he said was the damage done to the country’s immigration infrastructure over the last four years.
The biggest challenge faced by Biden’s administration is unaccompanied minors seeking entry to the U.S. They’re allowed to enter the country in the custody of Customs and Border Protection, even as most adults and families are sent away. More than 9,600 entered the U.S. in February, triple the number who arrived in February 2020, according to data released earlier this month.
McCarthy told reporters on Thursday, “This entire crisis is created simply by Joe Biden’s actions and words.” On Saturday he tweeted that Democrats need to “DO SOMETHING.”
Congressional Republicans also criticized House Democrats for being “tone deaf” in terms of their timing in passing two immigration bills last week they say will only inspire more immigration from Mexico and Central America.
One of those measures would provide green cards and eventual citizenship to young undocumented immigrants, known as Dreamers, who were brought to the U.S. as children, and legal status for migrant agricultural workers.
Senator Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, the other Republican who traveled with Mayorkas on Friday, called the rush of minors over the U.S. border “a tragedy.”
“Swift action needs to be taken NOW to end this humanitarian crisis,” she said on Twitter.
Source: Newmax
