News/Commentary

Mayorkas says 5M illegal immigrants a ‘significant challenge’ but not a crisis; problem ‘not unique’ to US

April 2, 2023 | | Print Article

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas continues to refuse to admit that what’s occurring at the southern U.S. border is a crisis — a major one, at that.

Indeed, during a “60 Minutes” interview set to air in full on Sunday, he portrayed the crisis as nothing more than a so-called “serious” or “significant challenge.”

Listen:

“What the American people see is a border that looks to be chaotic, that looks to be porous,” the relevant interview clip seen above began with reporter Sharyn Alfonsi asking.

“Well, let’s, I mean, the number of people that are arriving at our border is at an extraordinary height. There’s no question about that. But that is not unique to the southern border of the United States. There is a tremendous amount of movement throughout the hemisphere, and in fact throughout the world,” Mayorkas replied.

But it’s not clear what the border situation of other countries has to do with the border situation here. Especially since the reasons for the border crisis in other nations may very well have nothing to do with the reasons for the crisis here.

For example, one suspected reason for the crisis here is the Biden administration’s willingness to let almost anybody who seeks asylum into the country.

Continuing the interview, Alfonsi then pointed to the recent testimony of Border Patrol Chief Raul L. Ortiz.

“The chief of the Border Patrol, Ortiz, testified before Congress that some areas of the Border are in a crisis situation. Do you agree?” she asked.

“I think that we face a very serious challenge in certain parts of the border,” Mayorkas replied, skipping over the question.

Alfonsi responded by doubling down on her line of questioning.

“Do you view what’s happening right now in the border as a crisis?” she bluntly asked.

“I view it as a significant challenge,” Mayorkas replied.

This time the CBS reporter came at it from a different angle, asking, “Why won’t you say the word crisis?”

“You know what, because I have tremendous faith in the people of the Department of Homeland Security, and a crisis speaks to me of a withdrawal from our mission, and we are only putting more force and more energy into it,” Mayorkas replied.

His refusal to just be honest sparked immediate backlash on social media.

Look:

Notice what one critic asked: “A crisis is an admission of failure, that’s why he won’t say it. Why won’t they impeach him?”

That’s a fair question. Prior to retaking the House, Republicans had vowed to impeach Mayorkas. They have yet to follow through on this promise.

Dovetailing back to the secretary’s “60 Minutes” remarks, recall how at the end, he claimed calling the crisis at the border a crisis would in effect be disrespectful to those who work for the Department of Homeland Security.

“I have tremendous faith in the people of the Department of Homeland Security, and a crisis speaks to me of a withdrawal from our mission,” he said.

The problem here is his words don’t match his actions. Recall how, after U.S. Border Patrol agents were falsely accused of whipping Haitian migrants in September of 2021, Mayorkas threw the agents under the bus. And he did so despite knowing full well that they hadn’t whipped the migrants.

“Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas was told last year that there was no evidence Border Patrol agents had ‘whipped’ or ‘strapped’ Haitian migrants at the US-Mexico border — hours before he bolstered President Biden’s lies about the incident at a press conference,” the New York Post reported last October.

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Vivek Saxena
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