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DHS Secretary Speaks Ahead Of COVID-Era Title 42 Migrant Policy's End; Mayorkas: Migrant Influx Will Create "Incredible Strain" On Resources; Mayorkas: Those Who Enter Illegally Are Presumed Ineligible For Asylum & Face Five-Year Ban. Aired 1:30-2p ET
Aired May 11, 2023 - 13:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[13:30:00]
ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS, HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: Well, let me just correct you right there. Because actually the investigation concluded that the whipping did not occur.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: I'm sorry. I saw it differently. They were whipped with something from the horse, reins from the horse. Maybe either the video or the picture was fixed, but what I saw was totally different. I'm sorry.
MAYORKAS: Yes, I'm going to leave you as corrected.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: What happens -- again, the Mexican border is not just Mexicans. It's Africans and Haitians. What is there in place as you hear from people who are advocates for immigrants like Nona Geoffrey to help those who are trying to seek asylum from places like Haiti that has gangs.
They can't even have an election because things are -- the atrocities there are just so great.
MAYORKAS: So a few responses. Number one, we have set up the CBP-1 app to enable people to make appointments and arrive at ports of entry safely if they qualify for exceptions under the public health authority of Title 42, which of course is set to expire at 11:59 p.m.
We have admitted approximately 740 people through that CBP-1 app per day. The majority of the individuals admitted have been Haitian.
We are expanding that CBP-1 app to reach as many as 1,000 people a day. And we are setting up regional processing centers throughout the region, working very closely with countries to the south, working with Colombia and others.
And we expect to set up as many as 100 or more of those processing centers that will be open to people of all nationalities to obtain humanitarian relief.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Mr. Secretary, thank you for being here.
The president said this week that the situation on the southern border is going to be chaotic for a while. Given the fact that you've had nearly two years to prepare for this moment, how can chaos be the expectation?
MAYORKAS: Well, I have said for months and months that the challenge at the border is and is going to be very difficult. And we have spoken repeatedly about the fact that that difficulty may actually only increase at this time of transition.
It is going to take a period of time for our approach to actually gain traction and show results. And I've been very clear about that.
The fundamental reason, the fundamental reason why we have a challenge at our border and we've had this challenge many a time before is because we are working within the constraints of a broken, a fundamentally broken immigration system.
And we also are operating on resources that are far less than those that we need and that we've requested.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Some of the measures that you have been talking about to put in place, to mitigate this surge, some of those aren't even in place yet.
It wasn't until two weeks ago that you announced these plans to open these regional processing centers. As far as I'm aware, they're not open yet.
Of the 1,500 troops that the president deployed, only 550 are actually on the ground.
So given how long you have known that Title 42 is ending on May 11th, why aren't all these measures already in place?
MAYORKAS: So we have implemented measures well before those few that you identify. Our parole processes would be an example.
While we deploy 1,500 additional Department of Defense personnel, we've had 2,500 Department of Defense personnel well in place already.
We have surged resources of all types over months and months. Not just personnel but transportation facilities. Technology. Additional bed space. So we have been, in fact --
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: So you've done all you can at this point.
MAYORKAS: We have done all we can with the resources that we have and within the system that we are operating under.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: I want to ask you a couple questions, Mr. Secretary. Thanks for being here.
First off, on the CBP-1 app you were speaking about, migrants speaking to journalists, including our reporters on the ground, have indicated a series of frustrations.
They say they're having trouble logging on. They're having trouble getting appointments. They're having trouble with language barriers. Perhaps they speak indigenous languages or others. And they're seeing technical glitches right now.
So what specifically is being done to fix that right now? And does that app provide false hope to these migrants coming that will only lead to future frustration and surges like we saw from Venezuelans only a matter of months ago?
MAYORKAS: So we have seen a tremendous acceptance of the CBP-1 app. We are utilizing it very effectively. As I referenced earlier in response to the reporter's prior question, that 740 people per day are reaching our port of entry.
[13:34:56]
Those, by the way, are not individuals who've only made appointments but who actually a fraction of the people who have made appointments using the CBP-1 app. It has proven successful.
We have identified glitches and we've done so not unilaterally, exclusively, but also by speaking with individuals who have used the app, by speaking with migrants here in the United States who have reached the United States.
As well as actually going into Mexico and meeting with migrants to understand the challenges, if I may. So we have addressed the challenges of which we are aware.
The greatest challenge with respect to the CBP-1 app is not a technological challenge but rather the fact that we have many more migrants than we have the capacity to make appointments for.
The greatest level of frustration is actually being able to make the appointment, not the utility of the CBP-1 app itself. That is again another example of a broken immigration system.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: I want to follow up on a foreign policy section very broadly. Just quickly, the U.S. has sanctions right now on a series of foreign nation, on Cuba, on Venezuela, Nicaragua. Does the Biden administration's foreign policy make this situation worse?
MAYORKAS: So I'm going to leave that to our foreign policy specialists.
But I will say this. The predicate of those principles are separate and apart from the immigration challenge that we're confronting.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're going (INAUDIBLE)
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Given the time you say this is going to take and based on what you are seeing now at the southern border and beyond in Mexico, I wonder if you could offer some details, paint a picture.
What should Americans in those border communities and beyond expect in the coming days and weeks? What's this going to look like?
MAYORKAS: We could see very crowded -- as we are now, we could see very crowded Border Patrol facilities. I cannot overstate the strain on our personnel and our facilities.
But we know how to manage through such strain. As difficult as it will be. I have tremendous confidence and pride in our personnel.
Let me share with you an example of how we manage through a very difficult situation. In El Paso, Texas, we saw individuals on the street. We engaged in a very sensitive and humane law enforcement operation to address that challenge. And we successfully have done so to the praise of the city of El Paso.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Our teams in El Paso say that there are hundreds of migrants now in the open, in shelter, with very limited access to food and water and bathrooms for days. Why aren't they being processed? Is that what we can expect?
MAYORKAS: So we are working very closely with non-profit organizations, with community groups to really deliver a community response to the challenge.
I cannot understate -- I'm sorry. I cannot overstate how much of a challenge it is going to be and how we all have to deal with it as one administration and one country.
Fundamentally, fundamentally, we need Congress to act.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Mr. Secretary, thank you for doing this.
Is this exclusively a challenge at the land border or are you also seeing an increase in irregular migration by sea to Florida and California by that matter?
And then secondly, on the regional processing centers, I know that your staff has said that you'll have more announcements on exactly where those will be in the coming days.
But just to echo my colleague's point, did you want those to be ready ahead of the expiration of Title 42? And can you give any details on exactly where these processing centers will be?
MAYORKAS: So with respect to maritime migration, a number of months ago, we were experiencing pressure in the maritime environment, and we responded to that pressure with increased resources.
It is incredibly perilous for individuals to take to the seas. The search-and-rescue operations that the United States Coast Guard has to undertake all too often to rescue people.
Those seas are rough and the vessels that they use are extraordinarily flimsy. And we see death on the high seas. And so we post up our resources, our Coast Guard resources. We also
activated more robustly the reunification programs that give a lawful pathway for individuals to reach a country of safety.
[13:40:00]
There was a second part to that question. Sorry.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm sorry, Michael, I'm trying to get as many people as I can.
(CROSSTALK)
MAYORKAS: Oh, the regional processing centers. I apologize.
The regional processing centers, that's not something that the United States can set up unilaterally within a matter of weeks.
This is a subject that requires a diplomacy. We rely on our foreign partners. And it takes a great deal of partnering.
Not only with the partners themselves but also with the international organizations that are part of the fabric of international humanitarian relief, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, The International Organization for Migration and others.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Go ahead, Brian.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Secretary.
A bus of migrants from Texas arrived in front of the vice president's office this morning at the vice president's house this morning. What's your response to that, to more buses of migrants being sent from Texas to Washington, D.C.?
MAYORKAS: It is a both sad and tragic day when a government official uses migrants as a pawn for political purposes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE)
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Secretary, for being here.
On the memo that the U.S. Border Patrol chief sent to chiefs last night allowing for parole releases if overcrowding becomes an issue, that's not Title 8 like you said would happen.
If these migrants don't get an alien registration number that would be used to track them, they don't get a court date. They're instead asked to self-report to ICE within 60 days.
You said at the beginning that you've prepared for this moment for almost two years. So why is part of that plan an honor system? MAYORKAS: Well, it is not an honor system. What we -- what we do is we
use the resources that we have to meet the challenges that we confront. This is a tool that has been used in the past.
The vast majority of individuals will, indeed, be placed in expedited removal. And if they do not qualify, will be removed in a matter of days if not weeks from the United States.
When we encounter a volume of individuals for which you need to address in a different way, we do so.
If those individuals do not honor their commitment to surrender to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer to be able to be placed in enforcement proceedings, they are a subject of our apprehension efforts.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: You said it would be a fraction of migrants that this happens with. How many is a fraction when you've had almost six million illegal crossings under this administration?
MAYORKAS: We, last year, removed, returned and expelled approximately 1.4 million individuals. That is the most in any one year.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Will you be on shaky legal ground, though, with mass releases?
MAYORKAS: Well, first of all --
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: On a case-by-case basis.
MAYORKAS: First of all, your question has a factual predicate with which I would disagree, about mass releases, number one. But releases of individuals subject to immigration enforcement proceedings is not something particular to this administration.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: -- case by case basis and this would not be on a case-by-case basis.
MAYORKAS: We -- we implement our operations in conjunction with the Department of Justice, and we have confidence in the lawfulness of our actions.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Thank you.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Mr. Secretary, are you concerned that the new asylum regulations will encourage more children to leave their families, as unaccompanied kids are exempt?
MAYORKAS: No. No, we are not. It is an obligation for us to address the needs of unaccompanied children. So we do not have that concern.
And what we are driving to, what we are fundamentally driving to is to build lawful pathways so people do not have to take -- have to make those difficult decisions and they don't have to take the dangerous journey in the first place.
And we are expanding lawful pathways to an unprecedented degree under the president's leadership.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Mr. Secretary, just one more. What is your assessment of Mexico's enforcement of the border?
MAYORKAS: We are working very closely with the government of Mexico. The president has spoken with the president of Mexico as recently as earlier this week. They have corresponded last week.
And Mexico is taking very important enforcement measures that we greatly appreciate and that were taken in coordination with us.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Mr. Secretary, how is your administration redirecting the immigration judges to prioritize new arrivals and will that affect the backlog that's already there from previous ones?
[13:44:58]
MAYORKAS: So, Peter, your question, if I may -- just to hit this point once again, your question speaks of an immigration court backlog that exceeds two million cases. What a powerful example of a broken immigration system.
Not only are we surging asylum officers, about 1,000 asylum officers, to conduct credible fear screenings in the context of expedited removal, but the Department of Justice is surging immigration judges alongside us.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Steven?
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Sir, if I could ask you about the --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Sorry, Peter.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: The Title 8 enforcement, and you're talking about you're trying to send a message, critics of the administration would argue this is a message you could and probably should have said earlier on in the administration.
Can you walk us through the deliberation? How did you arrive at the idea that there should be a presumption of ineligibility? And why was that policy not announced earlier?
MAYORKAS: So in response to your precise question, we sought to end Title 42, the public health authority, earlier.
We sought to roll out our immigration enforcement authorities under Title 8 of the United States code earlier. We were enjoined from doing so by a court.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Specifically the asylum policy, the presumption of inadmissibility, why not come out with that sooner? You're trying to send that message now.
(CROSSTALK)
MAYORKAS: It's not -- it's not a message. We don't promulgate a regulation. We don't promulgate a law to send a message. We promulgate a law to achieve a policy and operational outcome.
And the outcome we seek to achieve through this regulation is to incentivize people to take the lawful pathways and disincentivize them to place their lives in the hands of ruthless smugglers.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: It's on the screens behind you as determinates, redirecting migrants.
MAYORKAS: That's not a message. That's an impact on human behavior.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'll go to the back.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Thank you.
Thank you, Secretary.
First, have you ruled out family detention as an option?
And then two, you said that you have many more migrants than you have appointments for. So is there any effort to try to expand the appointments? And do you have numbers for how many appointments are confirmed per day?
MAYORKAS: So we are indeed expanding the use of CBP-1 app from approximately 740 arrivals at our ports of entry along the southern border to 1,000 a day. And we are exploring what other capabilities we can add to that.
And the first part of your question was family detention. This administration ended family detention in March of 2021.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: You're not going to bring it back at all?
MAYORKAS: We've made it clear that families who are in immigration enforcement proceedings, including in expedited removal proceedings, a more accelerated immigration enforcement process, will be on alternatives to detention.
The conditions of alternatives to detention may be increased as the situation warrants.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Increased to what?
MAYORKAS: So, for example, we could place heads of Household under curfews so that we are better able to monitor their activities, and I should say their compliance with our restrictions and obligations to appear in court.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Secretary --
(CROSSTALK)
MAYORKAS: Can you orient me? Sorry.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Going to the back.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Mr. Secretary, can you describe how you will be treating any differently migrants at the border that come from countries where you don't have close working relationships?
For example, we've seen reporting of migrants coming from as far as China, Russia, Syria.
And then my second question, I'm going to try to ask Peter's question in a different way. With some Democrats urging that President Biden to end sanctions on Cuba and Venezuela, do you support that?
MAYORKAS: So you speak of different demographics arriving at our southern border. This speaks to the fact that the challenge of migration is not exclusive to the southern border and is, in fact, not exclusive to the western hemisphere.
We are seeing a global displacement of people that is the greatest since at least World War II.
The challenge of encountering individuals from countries that are -- to which it's not easy to remove people has been a long-standing challenge that our immigration laws have run into.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: So what do you do with those people actually now? People who are coming from Russia and China and so on. What do you do with them?
MAYORKAS: So we place them in immigration enforcement proceedings, and they make -- if they make a claim for relief, we adjudicate those claims.
[13:50:04]
And if, in fact, those claims are granted, then they have, under our laws, a basis on which to stay in the United States. If they do not, then we work with foreign governments to address the enforcement actions that we think are appropriate.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Way in the back.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE) sanctions, sir?
MAYORKAS: That is outside of today's discussion.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Mr. Secretary, thank you.
So you're talking about Congress needing to act on this. Any reaction to the immigration package that House Republicans are looking to vote on today?
And second question, on the processing centers, was it a mistake to not have them ready to prevent a surge?
MAYORKAS: Can you repeat the second part of the question?
And I would say the president, President Biden, presented Congress with a legislative package on day one of this administration. Now about 28 months ago.
We are hopeful that sensible and needed legislative reform will be passed by Congress and we do not concur with the bill that was presented today.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: On the processing centers specifically, was it a mistake to not have them ready in time to prevent a surge?
MAYORKAS: As I have said, the development of those processing centers is a complex undertaking that requires the work of our foreign partners and international organizations and we move very swiftly.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Thank you, Secretary.
Republicans repeatedly seek to paint the administration as being unable to secure the border. I wanted to ask, do you see this as a test or possibly an opportunity, to show the American people that the administration does have the ability to manage the border under difficult circumstances?
MAYORKAS: We view this as a challenge, a challenge that we will meet.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: May I also ask, in regard to the overcrowding in some of these difficult conditions, how long are we talking that this chaotic-ness will be? Are we talking weeks, months, years, before things take traction and you get more of a handle on it?
MAYORKAS: We are working as hard as we can to make sure that that the time it takes is as little as possible.
Let me say an additional thing in response to your first question. This is a challenge, and we're going to meet this challenge. We're going to meet it within a broken immigration system while adhering to our values.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE)
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Thank you.
Mr. Secretary, last year, there were some estimates from DHS officials putting the highest level of migrants coming across the border each day at 18,000 if Title 42 is revoked.
Is that still the estimate or do you have a clearer number of what you're anticipating?
MAYORKAS: So let me clarify the numbers -- the number to which you refer. Those weren't predictions. It is our responsibility in the Department of Homeland Security and across the administration to plan for different scenarios. That's what we do.
And so what we developed was, in fact, different scenarios to which we plan. And so we have done so and we continue to do so.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: You know, you talked about this being a challenging transition period, but how long do you expect a potential surge to last? Are we talking weeks, months, longer?
MAYORKAS: We have confidence in the approach that we are taking, which is to really present lawful pathways for individuals to take advantage of and to disincentivize individuals from really placing their lives in the hands of smugglers.
Let me share with you that the parole processes that we announced and implemented on January 5th for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans are a proof point of the success of our approach.
We saw a tremendous demand to access those lawful pathways, and we saw a -- over a 90 percent drop in the number of encounters of individuals from those four countries at our southern border and we saw that very, very quickly.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A couple more.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Republicans have challenged you on this point on Capitol Hill and I wanted to give you an opportunity to respond.
You know, they point to Border Patrol's own numbers, which show going back to October of last year, there were more than a million apprehensions, but then there were more than 530,000 got aways. That's roughly the size of the city of Baltimore.
How can you say that the border is not open?
MAYORKAS: So, we removed, returned, and expelled 1.4 million last year. Ask those 1.4 million people if they think the border is open.
[13:55:08]
Our apprehension rate at the border is consistent with the apprehension rate in prior years.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: And in El Paso --
BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: We have been listening to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas speaking from the White House, discussing the end of Title 42 and the current migrant crisis at the border.
The secretary saying that the administration has done all it can with the resources that it has, while adhering to its values.
Even though he acknowledged strain, pointing the finger at Congress, saying they have not provided adequate resources to the effort to keep migrants from entering the United States. Saying they're operating under a, quote, "broken, outdated immigration system."
And the secretary also had a message for those 155,000-plus that are estimated to be in Mexico waiting to enter the United States at the end of Title 42, saying, quote, our border is not open.
We're going to be right back after a quick break. Stay with CNN NEWS CENTRAL.
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