Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas recently admitted that, in hindsight, the administration could have acted sooner to address the border situation, especially after bipartisan negotiations failed due to “irresponsible politics.”
During an interview on CBS’ Face the Nation, host Margaret Brennan asked why President Biden waited until just five months before the election to take executive action to tackle the ongoing border crisis. Mayorkas explained that the administration had been pushing Congress to act on border security but faced constant political roadblocks.
“We were asking Congress to step in,” Mayorkas said. “We were doing everything we could to make sure the broken immigration system could be fixed. But Congress kept denying our requests for funding.”
Mayorkas pointed out that when President Biden took office, the country was still in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. The previous administration had put in place Title 42, which allowed for the expulsion of individuals at the border due to public health concerns. This continued until May 2023, when the administration shifted focus to Congress for additional border funding.
He also spoke about the “bipartisan negotiations” for a border bill, which, unfortunately, failed after facing opposition from both sides. “It was a great solution,” Mayorkas said. “But politics got in the way and killed it.”
Reflecting on it now, Mayorkas admitted that had they known how things would unfold, they might have moved more quickly with executive action. “Looking back, if we’d known that politics would kill this effort, maybe we would have acted sooner,” he said.
Just months earlier, in April 2023, Mayorkas had insisted that the border was “secure,” despite the surge in border crossings. This statement sparked backlash, particularly from Republicans, who have criticized the administration’s handling of border security.
