Mayorkas: ‘Essentially, the Border Was Closed’ for Biden’s First Two Years

On Wednesday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas responded to a question on why President Joe Biden didn’t take the executive action on the border he took recently earlier by arguing that “essentially, the border was closed” until May of last year.

BBC U.S. Special Correspondent and MSNBC Contributor Katty Kay asked, “Mr. Secretary, the flows of people across the border have caused the President a huge amount of political trouble. If this executive order has worked as well as you’re saying it’s worked this morning, why not just do it a year-and-a-half ago and save the Democrats all the kind of pushback they’ve had on the border?”

Mayorkas answered, “Well, let’s remember the chronology here. On day one of the President’s administration, he presented Congress with a legislative proposal to fix our immigration system. Up until May of last year, Title 42, the public health order, was in place. That prevented people from entering the United States, with some exceptions. It provided the government with the authority to expel people from the United States, essentially, the border was closed. Everyone expected pandemonium to break out when Title 42 was lifted. It did not. The President went to Congress and requested supplemental funding, the funding that we and the Department of Homeland Security and other departments that administer the immigration system so desperately need. He went for that funding to Congress in August, did not receive it. He went again in October, did not receive it. We then went into, very difficult, but ultimately successful, bipartisan negotiations for a legislative solution. That would have delivered the fixes that our system [has] long needed. It would have provided the immigration system with the resources we have long needed, 1,500 Border Patrol and Office of Field Operations personnel, 1,200 Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers and agents, 4,300 asylum officers, more than 100 immigration judges. That was a bipartisan, practical solution that involved difficult compromises, but compromises that delivered success. Congress failed to act. The President has acted.”

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett

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