Immigration

GOP senators grill DHS secretary on border crisis, but he still won’t call it a crisis

Published

2 years ago

May 13, 2021

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After historical surges in immigration this last month, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas testified before the Senate Homeland Security Committee Thursday. Republican members were finally able to ask Mayorkas direct questions about the ongoing crisis.

First, when ranking member Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH) brought out a chart to display the surge, Mayorkas attempted to reiterate President Biden’s sentiments, blaming it on the previous administration. Portman pointed again to the numbers.

“Don’t blame the previous administration for not having facilities that they didn’t need because they didn’t have the surge,” Portman said.

Next, Sen. James Lankford (R-OH) asked the secretary to address the amount of people who have crossed the border and not received a court date for their immigration hearing.

“We understand there’s been 19,000 individuals that have crossed the border this calendar year that were not given a notice to appear [in court,]” Lankford said. “Is that correct?”

“I am not aware of that number,” Mayorkas replied.

Then, Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) asked Mayorkas if he would call the situation a crisis. “It seems Mr. Secretary that you’re proud of the progress made by the administration” the Utah senator asked. “I see an extraordinary crisis! Do you recognize this as an alarming crisis? Is this not a massive failure that would suggest that the administration needs to take immediate action to remedy what we’re seeing here?”

“We have taken immediate action with respect to the unaccompanied children,” Mayorkas responded, refusing to call the situation a crisis.

After, Sen. Thomas Carper (D-DE) pointed out improvement in the processing of these children. Just in April, the average unaccompanied child found at the border was in Border Patrol custody for 139 hours. Now, on May 11, children were in Health and Human Services’ custody for only 26 hours.

But, even the Democrat senator had to point out a glaring problem when it comes to immigration. The United States has no ambassador for the countries of Honduras or El Salvador. Honduras is the number two nationality among migrants crossing in recent months. As many as 38,000 arrived at the border in April alone. Over 11,000 migrants were from El Salvador, making it the fourth most represented nationality.

“We have not had a US ambassador to Honduras for four years,” Carper said. “For four years!”

“We’re very focused on that,” Mayorkas said.

Finally, Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) talked about his own visit to the border and pointed out that neither the President or the Vice President have visited the border after over 100 days in office.

“Are you disappointed that President Biden and VP Harris have not taken the time to come to the border?” Scott asked.

“Absolutely not,” Mayorkas said. He claimed the responsibility for visiting the border himself, and said he’s been many times since.

You can follow Jenny Goldsberry on Twitter @jennyjournalism

Elections

Trump, Rep Biggs: invoking the Alien Enemies Act to enable widespread deportation will ‘be necessary’

Published

21 hours ago

September 22, 2023

Sara Carter Staff

At a recent rally in Iowa, former President Donald Trump promised that if elected again in 2024, he would invoke the Alien Enemies Act to enable widespread deportation of migrants who have illegally entered the United States. Since President Joe Biden took office in January of 2021, over 6 million people have illegally entered the country.

Republican Representative Andy Biggs from border state Arizona, which is among the states suffering the greatest consequences from the Biden administration policies, lamented that Trump’s suggestion will be “necessary.”

Speaking on the “Just the News, No Noise” television show, Biggs stated “[I]t’s actually gonna have to be necessary.” Biggs then added his thoughts on how many more people will continue to cross the border under Biden: “Because by the time Trump gets back in office, you will have had over 10 million, in my opinion, over 10 million illegal aliens cross our border and come into the country, under the Biden regime.”

“And so when you start deporting people, and removing them from this country, what that does is that disincentivizes the tens of thousands of people who are coming,” Biggs went on. “And by the way, everyday down in Darién Gap, which is in Panama… over 5,000 people a day. [I] talk[ed] to one of my sources from the gap today. And I will just tell you, those people that you’ve seen come come in to Eagle Pass, over 7,000 in a three day period, most of those two weeks ago, were down crossing into the Darién Gap.”

“And those people… make their way up and they end up in the Eagle Pass [Texas], Del Rio area,” he continued. “So if you want to disincentivize them, you remove them from the country, which is why they remain in Mexico policy was so doggone effective at slowing down illegal border crossings.”