Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas says he won’t refer to the record number of illegal migrant crossings at the Mexican border as a “crisis,” but rather as “a significant challenge.”
Mayorkas said in an interview with 60 Minutes set to air Sunday that he would not refer to the current situation at the southern border as a crisis because he has “tremendous faith in the people of the Department of Homeland Security.” The United States-Mexico border saw 1.7 million migrant encounters in the fiscal year 2021 and over 2.3 million in FY 2022, according to Fox News.
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“A crisis speaks to me of a withdrawal from our mission,” Mayorkas said. “And we are only putting more force and more energy into it.”
Mayorkas has been greatly criticized by Republicans for his handling of the southern border, with many in the GOP calling for his resignation or impeachment. Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz testified at Congressional hearings last month that agents did not have “operational control” of the border.
“In five of those nine southwest border sectors, we have seen an increase in flow and that has caused a considerable strain on our resources and really has forced the Border Patrol to move so agents and even migrants to some of the other areas,” Ortiz said.
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Ortiz notably used the word “crisis” to describe the situation along the border. When Mayorkas was asked if he agreed with Ortiz, he claimed “we face a very serious challenge in parts of the border.”
Mayorkas had a heated exchange with Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) about the migrant surge at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Tuesday, when the latter said the DHS chief had done a “disgraceful” job addressing the situation. Mayorkas responded by calling Cruz’s words “revolting” before saying he would not address the senator’s comments.
