On Tuesday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “Your World,” DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas responded to concerns that the exemption for unaccompanied children in President Joe Biden’s immigration executive action will result in cartels taking advantage of that by stating that “We are taking it to the cartels.”
Host Neil Cavuto asked, [relevant exchange begins around 6:05] “[T]here are a number of exemptions for this, including unaccompanied children. And isn’t that a green light for drug cartels to take advantage of that, and the whole purpose of this sort of blows up in your face?”
Mayorkas answered, “Absolutely not.”
Cavuto then cut in to ask, “But who’s going to watch those unaccompanied children, if they are allowed in, you don’t ship them back, you don’t do anything like that. So, where do they go?”
Mayorkas responded, “Neil, we deal with unaccompanied children in a humanitarian way, adhering to our values. We deter irregular migration, we build lawful pathways, we have programs for minors.”
Cavuto then cut in to ask, “But this encourages drug cartels to take advantage of those kids, does it not, sir?”
Mayorkas answered, “Neil, we’re taking it to the drug cartels with unprecedented strength through our Transnational Criminal Investigative Units, through our Immigration and Customs Enforcement.”
Cavuto then cut in to ask “No, no this is actually a green light for those cartels, isn’t that the fear, that this is actually greenlighting and [they’ll] say, oh, guys, well, we can use these kids as pawns to get what we want?”
Mayorkas responded, “Neil, let’s be clear, the cartels and smuggling organizations are unscrupulous. They exploit individuals of all different types of vulnerabilities. We are taking it to the cartels. We exempted unaccompanied children from this asylum bar because of the compelling humanitarian picture they present. We’re going to adhere to our values while we take tough enforcement measures, which is what we have done.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett