DHS Secretary Mayorkas: ‘Our Entire Hemisphere Is Gripped with a Migration Challenge’

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week” that “our entire hemisphere was gripped with a migration challenge.”

Partial transcript as follows:

STEPHANOPOULOS: So, you know, the president’s come under fire from some of his closest allies over these new asylum policies. The ACLU. The head of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. Several Democratic senators, including Bob Menendez, who called it “an inhumane relic of the Trump administration’s racist immigration agenda.” Your response?

MAYORKAS: George, I – you know, there are three core principles here. Number one, we are dealing within a broken immigration system that Congress has failed to repair for decades. And there is unanimity with respect to that reality. Number one. Number two, the world is dealing with the greatest displacement of people since World War II in the Western Hemisphere. Our entire hemisphere is gripped with a migration challenge.

And, three, we, here in the United States, are premising our actions on the following. We want individuals who qualify for relief under our laws to come to the United States in a safe and orderly way. And that is why we are building lawful pathways so people do not have to place their lives and their life savings in the hands of ruthless smugglers. Those are the three core principles underlying our actions. That’s the reality that we are dealing with.

Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN