Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas acknowledged that more than one million of the immigrants apprehended at the border are released inside the United States each year. The Secretary further noted that he would not be surprised if more than 70% of the encounters produced during the last few months, that broke the record of entries, ended with illegals on the street. Mayorkas again denounced that the cause of this situation is the block in Congress to reform a "broken" immigration system and that there are no funds for more in the middle of a war with Republican congressmen over the Administration's immigration policy.
Mayorkas interview w/ @BretBaier tonight revealed major discrepancies in Biden admin. @PressSec in May: “Claims that CBP is allowing mass releases are categorically false.”@SecMayorkas: “More than a million [releases] per year.” Acknowledged at least 70% release rate…
— Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) January 5, 2024
Radical change in Mayorkas' speech since May
These statements by Mayorkas, during his participation in the Special Report program Fox News, contrast with the official statement of the Biden Administration a few months ago, in which they denied the release of migrants detained by Border Patrol. During the interview, Mayorkas tried to avoid responding directly to the data provided by the program host, Bret Baier, hiding behind immigration law and verbal games.
For example, after Baier asked him about how many illegals had been released during Biden's three years in office, Mayorkas responded:
Bret, let me correct a misunderstanding. When somebody enters the country, we place them in immigration enforcement proceedings pursuant to immigration law. And if their claim for relief, their claim to remain in the United States succeeds, then, by law, they are able to stay here. And if it doesn’t succeed, we remove them.
"Well over a million a year"
After Beier insisted on the numbers, avoiding Mayorkas' point, Mayorkas acknowledged that the number "is more than.... is well over a million a year, and that is precisely why we have said, from day one of this administration, that the immigration system that is so fundamentally broken needs to be fixed."
However, Mayorkas again tried to weasel his way out of answering how many of the more than 300,000 immigrants are arriving each of the last few months, drawing on funding that Congress allows and is in the midst of negotiating. In addition, he pointed out that it is "a regional challenge that requires regional solutions":
Bret, we are limited in our detention capacity by the funding that Congress provides to us. We have returned and removed a historic number of individuals. The numbers that we experienced in December [are] precisely why I traveled down to Mexico to speak with the president of Mexico, to encourage them that they enforce their southern border, that they enforce their laws along the migratory path, so that we reduce the number of individuals whom we encounter on our southern border. This is a regional challenge that requires regional solutions. It’s precisely why I traveled down to Mexico last week.
Mayorkas tries to avoid answering questions directly.
After the host pressed him again, asking if he would be surprised to learn that 70% or more of these people had been released on U.S. soil, the top federal Homeland Security official noted:
It would not surprise me at all. I know the data. And I will tell you that, when individuals are released, they are released into immigration enforcement proceedings. They are on alternatives to detention. And we have returned or removed a record number of individuals. We are enforcing the laws that Congress has passed.
