Mayorkas Says He Bears No Responsibility For Border Crisis, Blames Congress

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas stated that he “does not bear responsibility” for more than 8-million illegal alien encounters since he took office in February, 2021. Instead, the DHS secretary falsely claimed that border security is an issue for Congress, insinuating that Biden does not have the authority to take executive action.

“It certainly is a crisis and we don’t bear responsibility for a broken system and we’re doing a tremendous amount within that broken system, but fundamentally, fundamentally, doing a tremendous amount within that broken system, but fundamentally, fundamentally, Congress is the only one who can fix it,” Mayorkas told Meet The Press host Kristen Welker.

Mayorkas’ claim that President Biden does not have the ability to take executive action aimed at tackling the border crisis is patently false.

One of Biden’s first actions as president was to rescind former President Donald Trump’s “Remain In Mexico” policy, which required perspective asylum seekers to stay in Mexico prior to their asylum court dates. Instead, the Biden Administration has massively expanded its “catch and release” program, under which illegal aliens are given a court date before being released into the interior United States.

Data has long shown that a large percentage of these people never turn up for their court dates.

Biden also allowed Title 42 to expire, a COVID-era measure that allowed Border Patrol agents to turn perspective border crossers away. The policy was geared towards preventing the spread of infectious diseases inside the United States.

Elsewhere in the interview, Mayorkas claimed that the border is secure. He has repeatedly made this claim despite record numbers of illegal alien encounters recorded in 2022 and 2023 respectively.

“You testified for years really that the border is secure and now in recent comments President Biden says it’s not secure Do you now agree with President Biden’s assessment that it’s not secure?” Welker asked.

“There is no question that we have a broken system There is no question that we have a challenge, a crisis at the border, and there is no question that Congress needs to fix it. And we’re doing everything we can within that broken system, short of legislation, to address what is a, not just a challenge for the United States, but one throughout our region,” he replied, side-stepping the question.

The Senate recently failed to pass a bipartisan border “deal” that would have allowed 5,000 illegal aliens to enter the country every day, authorize green card handouts and send $60 billion to Ukraine. Just $20 billion of the massive spending package was actually allocated for border issues, with much of it going towards free lawyers and other services to help process asylum claims faster.