AMNA NAWAZ: Immigration has been a white-hot political issue for years and helped propel Donald Trump back into the White House.

The incoming president has promised mass deportations and is expected to issue a slew of related executive orders soon after being sworn in.

Seeing those through will be up to the men and women of the Department of Homeland Security.

And I spoke with the outgoing Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas earlier today.

Mr. Secretary, welcome back to the "News Hour."

Thanks for being here.

ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS, U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security: Thanks for having me, Amna.

AMNA NAWAZ: I need to start with the news out of Los Angeles, which we should point out is your hometown area, and these fires continue to rage.

They're very dangerous.

High winds also predicted through tomorrow.

What do you see ahead?

And when do you see, given the resources on the ground, that these fires can be brought under control?

ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS: So, Amna, it is indeed devastating.

It is my hometown.

I know many people who have lost their homes.

It's quite tragic.

It really depends on circumstances that are out of our control, that are out of the control of the firefighters.

You mentioned that we have to see where we are tomorrow because the area is expecting very high winds today and tomorrow.

So, the weather is a great uncertainty, but there are incredibly heroic firefighters and first responders who are doing everything they can to save as many homes as possible, and, of course, the top priority, to save lives.

AMNA NAWAZ: We are speaking at a time of enormous threats, both internal and foreign.

And the new year attack in New Orleans was a clear reminder of that, 14 people killed in that terrorist attack, and dozens more wounded.

You have said that you have spoken with your nominated successor, South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem, several times.

Give us a sense of what kind of questions she's asking about the nature of these threats, about how serious these threats are, both foreign-inspired and domestic violent extremist threats.

And what's your message been to her on this?

ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS: I don't want to get into the specifics of my conversations with the secretary-nominee, Governor Noem.

I will say this.

Our conversations have been substantive and they have been focused on what people whom we serve in the Department of Homeland Security need.

We spoke a number of times on and around January 1.

We have spoken a number of times about the tragic wildfires that are ravaging through Southern California.

Our conversations have been substantive, and I have deeply appreciated her focus on the well-being of people impacted by these tragedies.

AMNA NAWAZ: So Governor Noem has no law enforcement experience, no experience running an agency of this size.

The DHS budget is some 15 times the size of the entire South Dakota state budget.

Does any of that worry you?

ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS: Governor Noem has been a governor of a state.

She has been in Congress.

I am confident that, if the Senate confirms her, which I believe everyone expects they will, that she will take care of the needs of our department and advance our mission and support the incredible 260,000 people that comprise the Department of Homeland Security here in this country and around the world.

AMNA NAWAZ: You have faced a lot of criticism about immigration enforcement in particular from Republicans during your time at DHS, and we were seeing record high border numbers under President Biden.

There was absolutely a bipartisan deal that would have addressed a lot of that Republicans spiked under pressure from President Trump.

But President Biden also didn't take new executive action until June of last year, and that action has now resulted in, what, a 60 percent drop in encounters at the U.S. southern border.

I'm sure you have seen there was an interview given by the outgoing ICE director, a man named P.J.

Lechleitner, said that Mr. Biden should have taken that kind of action sooner.

He said in part this: "The administration should have taken that action earlier, and I think the career people in DHS would have liked that, all of us in DHS, quite frankly.

I don't know if anybody in DHS wouldn't have wanted that earlier."

Is he wrong?

ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS: Let me say where we are now, and let me answer your question.

First, where we are now.

We are delivering to the incoming administration the most secure border in years.

The monthly average number of encounters now is lower than they were in 2019.

So we have taken executive action.

The president took executive action.

We in the Department of Homeland Security swiftly and effectively implemented it.

Let's take a step back and remember where we were.

We entered this administration in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

At that time, Title 42, the public health authority, was in place.

The public health authority was no longer needed as a matter of the state of public health in May of 2023, and it was lifted.

Everyone expected calamity to follow, 18,000, 20,000 encounters a day.

Those never materialized.

We then went to Congress after the lifting of Title 42 and sought the much-needed resources.

We sought funding for more Border Patrol agents, more ICE officers, more asylum officers, more immigration judges.

We were denied.

We then returned to Congress with a second request, the need being so compelling.

We were again denied, and we moved into the bipartisan Senate negotiations that actually produced a transformative piece of legislation, the first in almost 30 years, only to see it politically torpedoed.

And in light of that, the president quickly took executive action, which is now being litigated in the courts.

The enduring solution is legislation.

AMNA NAWAZ: Mr. Secretary, your critics, though, will point out, if this was a priority for the administration, the president could have taken that executive action even earlier, being able to say, if Congress won't act, then I will.

What do you say to that?

ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS: And then it would be litigated earlier and the outcome is still uncertain.

The president on day one presented to Congress legislative reform.

We have advocated for and supported legislative reform every day since.

That is the solution to a broken immigration system.

AMNA NAWAZ: We know president-elect Trump has pledged to carry out mass deportations, this idea of using the U.S. military on U.S. soil to help with detention efforts and deportation efforts.

What could that look like?

And is that a good idea, in your view?

ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS: I think it's very difficult to speculate what it could look like.

We hear different things being said about what their intentions are.

AMNA NAWAZ: You don't believe they will actually carry out mass deportations on the scale promised?

ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS: That is not what I said.

We are hearing different things, and different things bring different consequences.

We have to see what will materialize.

In the meantime, the rhetoric has instilled a great deal of fear in communities, including amongst those who've been in this country for decades and who have been contributing mightily to the prosperity of our country.

AMNA NAWAZ: You're days away from stepping away from this post.

What is this moment like for you, in terms of the landscape that you're handing off to the next team?

ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS: We are handing off a department that is stronger, more efficient, more effective, more cohesive than ever before.

It is handling a wider variety of challenges than has ever been the case, whether it be the threat of domestic violent extremism, the persistent threat of foreign terrorism, the threat of extreme weather events that have increased in frequency and gravity, whether it is the attacks of adverse nation-states.

It's a remarkable landscape of challenges with a remarkable group of 260,000 men and women who meet those challenges every day.

AMNA NAWAZ: What's this moment like personally for you as you step away?

ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS: It's a moment of tremendous pride, tremendous pride in the people whom I have worked alongside and supported for four years.

AMNA NAWAZ: The outgoing secretary of homeland security, Alejandro Mayorkas.

Mr. Secretary, thank you for your time.

Appreciate it.

ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS: Thank you, Amna.