Under swear in front of Congress, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas relented that the southern border was in a” crisis,” which shocked even Republicans.
Rep. Ashley Hinson (R-IA ) questioned Mayorkas about the frontier during his first appearance on Capitol Hill since his impeachment in February, and he seemed stunned by his response.
During a Wednesday hearing before the House Appropriations Committee, Hinson said,” Mr. Secretary, you dance around calling the crisis at our southern border a crisis as well as a charitable issue.” Why are you sending our provincial air marshals or FAMS to the southern border if you do not see it that way?
” Congresswoman, I do understand the challenges at the border. I certainly do n’t dance around them, as a matter of fact”, Mayorkas said.
Would you describe it as a” problems at the southern frontier”? Hinson interrupted.
” Yes, I would”, Mayorkas said. I actually work every day with the employees of the Department of Homeland Security to improve both the safety of our southern border and northern borders.
Mayorkas has vehemently declined to respond to lawmakers ‘ questions about whether the record-high number of illegal immigrant arrests at the U.S. Mexico border constitutes a” crisis” in House and Senate hearings over the past three years.
” I’m pleased to hear you call it a crisis”, Hinson said. ” I believe this is the first time I’ve heard you appreciate it in a public manner.”
Mayorkas first described the situation as a” crisis” during a Feb. 11 interview on NBC News’s Meet the Press.
” It certainly is a crisis”, Mayorkas told NBC News network Kristen Welker. ” We do n’t bear responsibility for a broken system. And we are doing a lot of it despite the damaged program. But ultimately, ultimately, Congress is the only one who does repair that”.
Rep. Michael Guest (R-MS ) responded moments later and inquired why Mayorkas had made the sudden admission now despite being asked repeatedly in the past when the number of illegal immigrant arrests at the border was at an all-time high, which he deemed a crisis.
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You have said consistently that this is not a turmoil and that the border is secure. I believe this is your first period saying that, Guest said. The president said in January that” I know that he said the border had n’t been secured in a decade, which would have been during the entire time he has been president and including the time he was vice president in the Obama administration,” and that” I know that he said that.”
Mayorkas made a comment to Tourist on his speech on NBC News, saying “it was not the first time I’d used that terminology.”
