According to a forthcoming interview, Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas has asserted that the number of migrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico Border illegally has reached an “extraordinary height.”
Speaking to Sharyn Alfonsi in a forthcoming episode of “60 minutes,” Mayorkas explained that Migrants “arriving at our border is at an extraordinary height,” adding there wasn’t any question that that was the case.
However, Mayorkas claimed the extraordinary figures weren’t only unique to the Southern border but were a reflection of a “tremendous amount of movement throughout the hemisphere” and the world.
Mayorkas’ interview comes as he faces intense criticism from Republican Lawmakers for his failure to secure the Southern border. Many GOP lawmakers are also calling for Mayorkas to be impeached.
In the face of that level of criticism, Mayorkas acknowledged the U.S. was facing a “very serious challenge in certain parts of the border” but declined to call the situation a crisis.
Mayorkas explained he believed describing the situation as a crisis meant a “withdrawal from our mission,” which he didn’t think was occurring given his “tremendous faith” in those working at the Department of Homeland Security.
He added that the Department was only pouring more resources into bringing the border under control.
Since President Joe Biden has taken office, encounters at the Southern border have skyrocketed.
The Customs and Border Patrol have recorded 2.4 million encounters at the Southern border between October 2021 and September 2022.
The figures have dropped considerably since the Biden administration implemented a new asylum policy that discourages Nicaraguan, Cuban, Venezuelan, and Haitian Migrants from traveling through Mexico before being approved for asylum in the U.S., resulting in a drop of 100,000 encounters in January.
