On Wednesday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas reacted to a report that DHS identified more than 400 migrants who were brought to the United States by a human smuggling network affiliated with ISIS by stating that “we have no evidence that they are individuals plotting to harm the United States.” And “We screen and vet individuals at the time of encounter. If we learn of derogatory information, we take enforcement action.”
Co-host Mika Brzezinski asked, “[T]here two issues here I want to ask you about, the first is NBC News reporting that the Department of Homeland Security has identified over 400 immigrants who have come to the U.S. from Central Asia and elsewhere as subjects of concern and some even affiliated, potentially, with an ISIS-affiliated human smuggling network. That’s number one. And then number two, reporting from NBC News that the administration is still releasing illegal crossers inside the U.S. to live while they pursue asylum claims, that it’s not officially, really working and it’s still — there are still a lot of folks coming through here the way they shouldn’t.”
Mayorkas responded, “Well, if I may correct you in a number of regards, number one, with respect to the people from Central Asia, we have no evidence that they are individuals plotting to harm the United States. That is inaccurate. It’s very important to note that the safety and security of the American people [is] our highest priority. We screen and vet individuals at the time of encounter. If we learn of derogatory information, we take enforcement action. We are proceeding with extreme caution here in the service of the security and safety of the American people, number one.”
He continued, “Number two, the number of individuals whom we’ve released into immigration enforcement proceedings subsequent to the president’s proclamation has dropped significantly. But remember, that our detention capacity — and this is not specific to our administration, this has been historic, ever since the ’90s when I was a federal prosecutor — our detention capacity is not sufficient to meet the number of people we encounter, and, therefore, we have to release people into the United States when they are in immigration enforcement proceedings and we put them on Alternatives to Detention when that is necessary from an enforcement perspective. And so, we have a number of procedures to ensure the safety and security of the American people. Fundamentally, we’re operating within a broken immigration system. We need Congress to fix it. Everyone agrees with that. It hasn’t been fixed since 1996.”
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