Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said on this week’s broadcast of “Fox News Sunday” that the crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border, which most recently created a magnet for Haitian migrants, was “nothing new.”
Anchor Chris Wallace said, “Hasn’t this administration created a magnet? Haven’t you given Haitians and a million more immigrants will you have an encounter with since Joe Biden came into office? Haven’t you given them a reason to believe there’s a reasonable chance if they come into this country, they will end up being released into the country and have months or perhaps years to stay here?”
Mayorkas said, “Chris, this is nothing new. We’ve seen this type of irregular migration many, many times throughout the years. I don’t know if Governor Abbott said the same thing in 2019 when there were more than a million people encountered at the southern border.”
Wallace said, “It has gotten worse. The statistics of your own department show that the flood of people coming illegally across the border has gotten worse under the Biden demonstration.”
Mayorkas said, “I wouldn’t call it a flood.”
Wallace shot back, “What would you call it?”
Mayorkas said, “We have seen large numbers of individuals encountered at our border making a claim for asylum, for humanitarian relief, which is a statute, which is a law of the United States that individuals can make a claim, a fear of persecution by reason of their membership in a particular social group. That’s what the law provides. We are certainly seeing a large number here in this year, but in 2019, we saw a large number, in 2014, in 2010. This is nothing new. It spans many, many years. It spans different administrations of both parties, and it speaks to the need for legislative reform.”
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN
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