Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas admitted “in hindsight” that executive action could have been taken to counter the “reckless policy” that killed bipartisan border negotiations.
CBS “Face the Nation” host Margaret Brennan asked Mayorkas on Sunday why President Biden waited just five months before the election to finally issue executive orders aimed at stemming the flow at the border.
Mayorkas insisted the administration had pressured Congress to act on the border, continuing to blame politics for preventing border funding from passing.
DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas defended the administration’s border actions on “Face the Nation” on Sunday. (Screenshot from CBS News)
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“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 imposed Title 42, which is a public health authority, and allowed us to expel individuals, continue to expel individuals at the border as the previous administration did There was enormous pressure to keep Title 42 operating, which we did through May 2023.”
He continued: “We then turned to Congress and asked for desperately needed additional funding to improve the operation of our administration of a broken immigration system. We were refused. We went back to Congress a second time and asked for additional funding. Denied. We then turned to bipartisan negotiations, which proved successful, but were then killed by irresponsible politics.
A bipartisan border bill failed to advance in the Senate earlier this year. (Justin Hamel/Getty Images)
The “bipartisan negotiations” referred to a Senate border bill negotiated by Republican Sen. James Lankford, Oklahoma, and Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy, Connecticut, and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, Arizona. Although the White House largely blamed Republicans for blocking the bill from passing, the bill did not advance in the Senate on a 43-50 vote with bipartisan opposition.
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“Looking back, in 2020, if we had known that irresponsible policy would have killed what was clearly a meritorious effort and result, we might have taken executive action more quickly,” Mayorkas said.
Mayorkas said in testimony that the border was secure despite record crossings. (AP/Mark Schiefelbein)
As recently as April 2023, Mayorkas insisted the border was “secure,” despite a record number of border crossings under the Biden administration. It’s a claim he has repeated despite scorn and ridicule from Republicans.
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