Homeland security chief: ‘The border is not open’
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas tells Yahoo News Chief Investigative Correspondent Michael Isikoff that he disagrees with the characterization of a “crisis” at the U.S.-Mexico border despite a 20-year high of migrants apprehended in April. Mayorkas, who is traveling to Mexico on Tuesday, says he stands by Vice President Harris’ message to Guatemalans last week that they should “not come” to the United States and emphasized the potential perils of the journey.
Video Transcript
MICHAEL ISIKOFF: The border crisis, which is what a lot of people view it as, seems to be unabated, 178,000 migrants apprehended in April, a 20-year high. Vice President Harris was in Guatemala last week and had a message for people in Central America. Do not come. Do you echo that message?
ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS: A few points, I must. First of all, I know people used the term crisis--
MICHAEL ISIKOFF: 20-year high would seem to be a crisis.
ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS: With which I disagreed. And when they used it, they, they referred to the fact that children were crowded in border patrol facilities, where children did not belong. And we've addressed that. And we've executed on the plan that we then had. And we continue to have, number one.
Number two, the numbers are not encounters of individuals. They include recidivists. And we've seen peaks before. Migration is a dynamic challenge that our country has confronted for many, many years.
And the vice president's message is a very important one. And it is one sentence in a suite of sentences that communicates the overall message, which is, do not come, because of the perils of the journey and the fact that we are addressing irregular migration on many fronts. The vice president is focused on the root causes.
We are also building legal pathways so children and families don't need to put their hands, their lives, their, their life savings in the grasp of smugglers and traffickers. And we are rebuilding our, our asylum system now. And so we have a multi-pronged approach.
And her statement was a statement of humanity. Do not come. It is dangerous. The border is not open, and we are building safe and legal and orderly avenues to seek humanitarian relief under our laws. And we're addressing the root causes, which is the focus of her efforts.
