Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas says some migrants crossing the southern border are “trying to game” the U.S. asylum system, a hardening of rhetoric as the crisis at the border remains an issue. leading politician ahead of the presidential elections in November.
“The reality is that some people are really trying to game the system,” Mayorkas told CBS News on Thursday. “That doesn't affect everyone we encounter, but there is an element and we deal with it accordingly.”
The comments represent a shift in rhetoric from the DHS chief, who has typically emphasized the need to expedite applications and defended the asylum system. Republicans have typically focused more on the ease with which migrants can cross the border and be released even if their claims are false.
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Two men scale the cyclone fence installed by the Texas National Guard as hundreds of migrants queue along the border wall dividing Mexico and the United States, waiting to be processed by the Border Patrol in hopes of receiving asylum on the 15th. March 2024 in Ciudad Juárez. Mexico. ((Photo by David Peinado/Anadolu via Getty Images))
Mayorkas told the outlet that a recent bipartisan border security proposal, which failed to gain support in the Senate, “would have equipped us with more tools to deal with those individuals who seek to game the system.”
Mayorkas' comments come as numbers at the southern border remain high despite a recent drop compared to previous months. There were 179,725 encounters at the southern border in April, up from 211,992 in April 2023 and 189,357 in March.
there was a record 2.4 million encounters with immigrants in FY23, and that record could be broken in FY24, despite the recent decline.
While the recent numbers are down from the more than 200,000 recorded in December, they are still higher than most months before the Biden administration. The administration has said it is dealing with hemispheric factors and a “broken” system.
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Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas is expected to face an impeachment vote in the House. (Getty Images)
Earlier this month, Mayorkas cited violence, insecurity, poverty, corruption, authoritarian regimes and “extreme climate events” among the reasons for migration around the world. However, he also said there were additional explanations for why the United States was a top destination.
“In our hemisphere, we overcame COVID faster than any other country. We had, in a post-COVID world, 11 million jobs to fill, we are a country of choice as a destination, and you take those two forces and then one “Consider that we have an immigration system that is fundamentally broken and we have a level of encounters that we do,” he asserted.
The administration has demanded reforms from Congress, including the bipartisan Senate bill. It has also noted 720,000 deportations or returns of illegal immigrants since May 2023, more than in every full fiscal year since 2011.
But Republicans have blamed the administration's policies, including reversing Trump-era policies such as building the wall, the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), and increasing domestic surveillance. They have passed their own legislation in the House that would significantly limit asylum claims, restart border wall construction and similar measures. So far the Senate has not addressed this issue.
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Lawmakers also impeached Mayorkas for his handling of the border crisis, but the articles of impeachment were dismissed in the Senate. Republicans often accuse the government of fueling the crisis with its policies.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE COVERAGE OF THE BORDER SECURITY CRISIS
It's a claim Mayorkas denied in his interview with CBS.
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“The reasons why people leave their countries of origin are those that we know quite well: extraordinary poverty, violence, extreme weather events, corruption, repression by authoritarian regimes. Those reasons and more,” Mayorkas said.
Meanwhile, immigration is likely to be a major political issue in the upcoming presidential election. A recent Fox News poll found that border security was the biggest problem among voters who called themselves very conservative (28%), Republicans (25%), white men without a college degree (20%), voters over 65 ( 17%), and rural voters (17%).
A Fox News poll conducted in March found that seven in 10 voters say the White House has “largely failed” to improve border security.
