Three House committees are currently investigating the border as a possible prelude to impeaching you as secretary of Homeland Security. Here is House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. Take a look. I am calling on the secretary to resign He cannot and must not remain in that position. If Secretary Mayorkas does not resign, House Republicans will investigate. Every order, every action and every failure will determine whether we can begin impeachment inquiry. If House Republicans go ahead, you could be the first Cabinet secretary to be impeached since 1876. How seriously do you take these calls? For your impeachment. Oh, I take them. I take them seriously. It is, it is the leadership of the House that provided those remarks. I don’t dismiss it by by any measure, but what I do is I focus on my work. What do you think is the basis for their calling for your impeachment? Do you think you’ve done anything wrong?
No, I don’t. I think it is a disagreement over policy, and I think it is used for political purposes. To continue a negative dialog about a migration challenge that is not unique to the United States. To continue that dialog to uplift it for political reasons. So, Mr. Secretary, have you come to a conclusion if these House committees either request you or subpoena you as part of either the investigation or an impeachment proceeding, have you decided whether or not you will appear before those committees? I intend to appear when Congress calls me to do so. House Republicans say that you have repeatedly lied to Congress when you have said this take a lot The border is closed. The border is secure.
The border is secure. Critics point out in 20, 20, Donald Trump’s final year in office, U.S. border authorities encountered migrants 458,000 times at the border. But under Joe Biden in 2022 there were 2.3 million encounters. How can you say the border is secure right now the United States has millions of jobs opening due to the economic success of this administration. We have progressed in conquering the pandemic far more than the countries to the south of Mexico. And that makes the United States an appealing place of destination for people fleeing persecution or otherwise in desperate need of a better life. But when you say what does secure mean to you, it certainly doesn’t mean that people aren’t able to get across the border illegally. Of course not. That is that. By that measure, the border has never been secure. Right. Since the Department of Homeland Security was created, individuals have invaded.
By what measure is it secure now, sir? So there is not a common definition of that. What’s your article What’s your definition? Our goal is to achieve operational control of the border, to do everything that we can to support our personnel with the resources is the technology, the policies that really advance the security of the border and do not come at the cost of the values of our country. But on the question of security. We have all seen the scenes of of floods, of people walking across shallow points in the Rio Grande. We’ve all seen the pictures of encampments in downtowns in El Paso places in Arizona, We’ve all seen the pictures of the flood of migrants coming to New York by those standards. It is not a secure border. The vast majority of those individuals have not sought to evade law enforcement, but have actually surrendered themselves to law enforcement and made a claim for relief under our laws.
The challenge the challenge is that between that time of encounter and the time of an ultimate immigration judges, an evaluation of their claim for asylum is four plus years. Critics say that when he took office, President Biden setting the policy view and forcing the policy, send a clear message to prospective migrants. He ended enrollments in the program that asylum seekers had to remain in Mexico. He wanted to stop using Title 42 public health protections to expel migrants, and he halted construction of the border wall. Here is the chief patrol agent, your employee for the Tucson sector. Take a look in the Tucson sector interviewing people post-arrest. What what became the most common response was that they believed that when the administration changed, that the law changed and policy changed and that there was an open border.
Migrants believe there’s an open border across Have you heard some of our political leaders speak about the border and communicate that the border is open? I don’t think the more than 1.5 million people who have been removed or expelled from the border would consider the border open. But political leaders communicate that the border is open, that is music to the smugglers ears and the smugglers themselves to spread. You’re going to blame this all on Republican website? Not absolutely. You’re not going to say that the administration and the policies on Remain in Mexico are title 42 or stopping construction of the wall that that had no impact. Chris, that’s not what I said. I’m just I’m just citing for you a few things and please allow me. Number one, they they use that rhetoric. Number two, we’re dealing with smuggling organizations that are far more sophisticated than than they were when I prosecuted them for 12 years as an assistant United States Attorney and as the United States attorney. They they spread disinformation.
They spread misinformation and the like. Let’s talk a little bit about you because your life story is wrapped up in this whole question of migration. Your family left Cuba when you were a baby. I think you were one year old yes. And your mother, Anita, was already a refugee because she had fled the Nazis from Romania to go to Cuba and then fled Cuba to go to the United States with you and your and your family when Castro took over. How does all of that history shape your view of people crossing borders to improve their lives and escape violence? My parents instilled in me the profound meaning of displacement, the yearning to give one’s children a better life than what the life one has had, the fragility of life. And so I understand deeply the plight of individuals who leave their homes, whether they flee persecution or aspire to a better life. We are a nation of immigrants. We are also a nation of laws. Those laws provide for humanitarian relief for those who qualify. They also provide that individuals who do not qualify will be removed. That’s how that’s how we do our work. In the Department of Homeland Security and the slings and arrows of your critics on Capitol Hill. Not going to force you out. They will not force me out.
