DHS Secretary Mayorkas on immigration system strains and border security negotiations

Read the Full Transcript

• Amna Nawaz:

  The U.S. government is set to partially shut down in 15 days, unless a funding agreement is reached. But immigration is a key sticking point in those talks. And it's an issue that has plagued Congress and the White House for years.

  Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas is the Biden administration's point man on those negotiations. And he joins us now.

  Mr. Secretary, welcome back to the "NewsHour." Thanks for joining us.

  Alejandro Mayorkas, U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security: Good evening. Thanks so much for having me.

• Amna Nawaz:

  So, the good news is, I guess, you're starting from a place, an agreement in these talks in some sense. Everyone agrees the immigration system is broken, has been for decades.

  You have said that you are hopeful some kind of fix will come out of those talks. What specific fix or fixes is there agreement on right now, even if the details aren't sorted yet?

• Alejandro Mayorkas:

  Well, I really don't want to get into the specifics of the subjects of negotiation. I'm incredibly proud to participate in those negotiations, to provide technical and operational advice to the both Republican and Democratic senators that are working to fix a fundamentally broken immigration system.

  You correctly note that that is the one thing in immigration about which everyone agrees, that we're dealing with a system that is broken and in desperate need of repair. It hasn't been fixed for more than 30 years.

• Amna Nawaz:

  You have previously listed reforms that are necessary, such as needing more Border Patrol agents, more immigration judges, more asylum officers.

  I will point out it doesn't seem as if any of those would slow or stop the flow of migrants coming to the U.S. border, which we have seen a massive increase of, part of a global increase we have seen of migration. Republicans are pushing for moves that will stop or stem the flow.

  So what step would do that, in your mind?

• Alejandro Mayorkas:

  Well, there are a few things that are being discussed. And I should say that the president's supplemental funding request does ask for resources that would indeed stem the flow.

  One of the biggest obstacles that we have in doing so is the fact that the time in between when we encounter an individual at the southern border and when their claim for relief is finally adjudicated can be six or more years. And by asking for immigration — more immigration judges, which the president has done in the supplemental funding request, we would have those additional resources to really collapse that time period, to make our — to really make us able to deliver justice more rapidly.

  And when migrants learn that, if they have an unsuccessful claim, they will be removed more rapidly, that will serve a deterrent effect. It impacts the risk calculus of intending migrants.

• Amna Nawaz:

  Wouldn't the same impact on risk calculus be had if you, say, raise the bar on credible fear claims, which is what people need to reach to make an asylum claim?

  Right now, if they meet that credible fear bar, you're given a court date. As you mentioned, it can be years away, people are allowed to stay in the U.S. Most of those cases, as you know, are ultimately denied. If people knew it was harder right now to enter the United States, wouldn't that discourage them from making the journey in the first place?

• Alejandro Mayorkas:

  One of the things that is a subject of consideration in the negotiations is how the asylum system can be fixed and how we can deliver justice more rapidly, while adhering to our international obligations.

  What the president has committed to do is to enforce our immigration laws and at the same time adhere to our nation's values. Please remember where we were when we took office in January of 2021, the damage to the immigration system and the damage to the Department of Homeland Security that the prior administration had inflicted.

  It had gutted U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. It had ripped families apart. We had to undo so much damage at the same time that we had to rebuild a system that had been decimated.

• Amna Nawaz:

  And I understand that those changes also added to the backlog in the asylum cases that we have seen.

  But do I hear you saying you don't think you need to change where the credible fear bar is? You would rather speed up the processing once people are already here?

• Alejandro Mayorkas:

  I will not speak to the specific details of the reforms that the Republican senators are considering and are discussing each and every day, understanding the desperate need to fix a fundamentally broken image.

• Amna Nawaz:

  Mr. Secretary, are expanding legal pathways any part of these negotiations? We do have a labor shortage in this country. Many advocates say that we don't have enough legal paths open.

  Would more legal paths discourage people from trying to enter illegally?

• Alejandro Mayorkas:

  President Biden has built an unprecedented number of safe, orderly and legal pathways for individuals who qualify for relief in the United States for them to access those avenues of relief.

  Our model has been to build…

• Amna Nawaz:

  But, Mr. Secretary, all due respect, you have seen an increase even as those legal pathways have been added, an increase in illegal entries, I should say.

• Alejandro Mayorkas:

  Yes, indeed.

  But remember — I would say two things. Number one, for measures as fundamental as we have just begun to build, for them to really take hold is not something that happens overnight. We did see immediate results upon the end of the use of Title 42 in May of this year. We did see immediate results.

  Migration is an extraordinarily dynamic phenomenon. Numbers ebb and flow. And the dynamism of migration is something that we are experiencing not exclusively at our southern border, but that is being experienced by countries throughout the Western Hemisphere and in fact around the world.

• Amna Nawaz:

  Well, some of the changes, as you mentioned, will take time to have an impact, but many Democratic governors are asking for help immediately and saying the federal government needs to do more.

  We know the Texas governor, Greg Abbott, has been busing and flying migrants to Northern cities. I know you have criticized him for not coordinating on that. But resources on the ground for these cities remain an issue. They say that they do not have enough housing or funding or support.

  What can the federal government do for those cities in the short term?

• Alejandro Mayorkas:

  Well, President Biden in his supplemental funding request has indeed requested additional funds for the cities, the Shelter and Services Program. He's asked for more funding for that.

  At the same time, what we need is a governor in one state to communicate, to cooperate with other cities and states, rather than purposefully and unilaterally busing migrants, using them as tools to score political points, in an effort to achieve disorder and chaos. That is not responsible governance.

• Amna Nawaz:

  Mr. Mayor, I guess I need to ask you as well about House Republicans' effort to move ahead with plans to impeach you. I know you have answered questions on this before and you said you are focused on solutions and the work.

  But what they allege is not that you can't enforce the border. They're alleging that you won't. House Speaker Johnson was at the border yesterday and he says he believes that it's not incompetence. He says he believes you have done this intentionally. He says: "I think these are intentional policy decisions that he has made."

  What's your response to that?

• Alejandro Mayorkas:

  I don't have time for — to address political rhetoric like that.

  You correctly noticed — noted that I am focused on the work at hand, achieving the mission, delivering solutions, working with Republican and Democratic senators alike to fix a fundamentally broken immigration system. I am focused on leading the Department of Homeland Security with tremendous pride and inspiration, watching and leading the work of 260,000 talented and dedicated men and women.

• Amna Nawaz:

  That is Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas joining us tonight.

  Mr. Secretary, good to see you. Thank you for your time.

• Alejandro Mayorkas:

  Thank you so much.

Improved audio player available on our mobile page