Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas claimed climate change, as well as “authoritarian” political regimes and poverty, are to blame for the surge of illegal migrant crossings at the southern border, not the policies of the Biden administration.
Secretary Mayorkas joined Fox host Bret Baier on an episode of “Special Report” to discuss the ongoing migration surge at the southern border. Baier began by asking him to make sense of recent migration numbers. There were 2,475,669 encounters in FY 2023, up from 2,378,944 in FY 2022 and 1,734,686 in FY 2021 according to numbers from Customs and Border Protection (CBP) compiled by Fox. Despite this increase, there were only 142,580 removals of noncitizens in 2023, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Moreover, border patrol saw 302,000 migrant encounters in the month of December alone (and that’s just the migrants who were apprehended, to say nothing of the others who crossed without detection). That was the highest monthly total of illegal immigrant encounters on record.
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When Baier brought up these numbers to Mayorkas, the secretary deflected and blamed Congress for insufficiently funding the government bureaucracies in charge of immigration:
“Bret, we are limited in our detention capacity by the funding that Congress provides to us. We have returned and removed a historic number of individuals. The numbers that we experienced in December [are] precisely why I traveled down to Mexico to speak with the president of Mexico, to encourage them that they enforce their southern border, that they enforce their laws along the migratory path, so that we reduce the number of individuals whom we encounter on our southern border. This is a regional challenge that requires regional solutions. It’s precisely why I traveled down to Mexico last week.”
But when Baier asked him just how many migrants have been intentionally released into the country, Mayorkas backpedaled to justification, citing asylum laws.
“When somebody enters the country, we place them in immigration enforcement proceedings pursuant to immigration law, and if their claim for relief, their claim to remain in the United States succeeds, then by law they are able to stay here,” he said.
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Mayorkas also said he “wouldn’t be surprised” if 70% of migrants encountered were released into the U.S., giving them nothing but a far-away court date to further plead their case.
To put things in perspective, 70% of 302,000 is 211,400. The population of Albuquerque, New Mexico is about 561,000.
Baier continuously grilled Mayorkas for denying that the Biden administration’s policies and its messaging—promising that anyone seeking asylum will be permitted into the country and will face minimal removals—is having an effect on the number of people swarming the southern border. Mayorkas had initially dismissed such an idea, saying the swarm is just part of a cyclical “ebb and flow.”
Mayorkas finally admitted that the current surge is historic, but claimed it’s part of a global migration surge being driven by “authoritarian” political regimes, climate change, and poverty. In addition, he said people are flocking to the U.S. because of Biden’s fantastic economy.
“Bret, the numbers are historic, the numbers are extraordinarily large. This is something that is not specific to the United States’ southern border. This is something that we are seeing throughout the hemisphere and throughout the world. We have an increase in authoritarian regimes. We have more extreme weather events that are driving people from their homes. We have poverty. And America is proving to be prosperous, with more than 8 million jobs that need to be filled. We recovered from the COVID pandemic more rapidly than any other country.”
Baier asked the Secretary what he would do if he was impeached, as Republicans have threatened to do by next week (which would make Mayorkas the first cabinet member to be impeached by the House of Representatives in 148 years). Mayorkas simply touted his team and the wider Biden administration, saying “We do so much for the American people and we’re incredibly proud to do it.”
Shane Devine is a writer covering politics, economics, and culture for Valuetainment. Follow Shane on X (Twitter).
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