A new report claims that President Joe Biden’s administration tried to alter the messaging on the border by Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, even looking at firing the official.
Within a sprawling piece on “The Trials of Alejandro Mayorkas,” The New Yorker reported how the secretary’s use of the word “crisis: to describe the immigration emergency unfolding on the southern U.S. border was creating a problem for the White House and the image Biden was trying to project.
As Biden entered the White House in 2021, his first order of business was seemingly dismantling everything that his predecessor, former President Donald Trump, had put in place – especially concerning restrictions on illegal immigration. Mayorkas, who was just impeached by the Republican-controlled House, was given the directive by the administration to see the agenda through.
“The White House had instructed Mayorkas to avoid using the word ‘crisis’ in his public appearances, but it was obvious to most observers that there was one,” the piece, by Jonathan Blitzer, detailed, adding “More than five hundred unaccompanied children were arriving each day; thousands of them were stuck in borderland holding facilities.”
When a reporter asked Mayorkas during a White House press conference in March 2021, if there was a “crisis at the border,” the secretary had replied, “The answer is no.”
“I think there is a challenge at the border that we are managing,” he told the reporter.
When asked by The New Yorker about what was seen by many as an “awkward and evasive” response as he avoided using the word crisis, Mayorkas replied, “I refuse to engage on battles of diction.”
“Biden, meanwhile, was furious that the issue was casting a shadow over the start of his term,” the piece noted.
The report went on to state that “according to three Administration officials, during a White House meeting in late spring, Biden’s chief of staff, Ron Klain, raised the possibility of firing Mayorkas, just to reset the Administration’s message.”
But Klain told the author, “I never suggested firing Secretary Mayorkas,” adding, “I consider Ali a friend and a dedicated public servant.”
“The irony was that Mayorkas, who had witnessed the surge in unaccompanied minors in 2014, as Deputy Secretary, was perhaps the least convenient fall guy. Among the Administration’s highest-ranking members, he had the most experience with the matter,” the article contended.
In response to the claims about the Biden administration’s displeasure with Mayorkas, Fox News reporter Bill Melugin noted that “Mayorkas has simply carried out the policies Biden campaigned on.”
If this is true, it doesn’t make much sense for Biden to react this way. Mayorkas has simply carried out the policies Biden campaigned on.
On debate stage, Biden himself invited asylum seekers to “surge” the border. He also said just being in U.S. illegally shouldn’t be a… https://t.co/C6bh8h8rjV— Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) February 18, 2024
Last week, Mayorkas became the first Cabinet secretary to be impeached in almost 150 years as the second attempt by Republicans proved successful with a 214-213 vote.
“Mayorkas is an exceptional case in U.S. history,” Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., had said before the vote, accusing him of having done more “damage on the country than any Cabinet secretary that’s ever been.”
“The House has a constitutional responsibility, as I’ve said many times. It’s probably the heaviest next to a declaration of war. And we have to do our job regardless of what the other chamber does,” Johnson said.
The House Homeland Security Committee approved two articles of impeachment, accusing him of having “refused to comply with Federal immigration laws” and having violated “public trust.”
Biden lashed out at the vote by saying “history will not look kindly on House Republicans for their blatant act of unconstitutional partisanship that has targeted an honorable public servant in order to play petty political games.”
Writers and editors can be contacted at [email protected] with feedback, tips, or corrections.
Originally from New York, Powers graduated from New York University and eventually made her way to sunny South Florida. Powers also contributes to BizPac Review.
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