Alejandro Mayorkas Reveals Migrants Only Have To Touch River Bank To Claim Asylum In The US

last year

At a House Appropriations Committee hearing on Wednesday, Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX) questioned Sec. Alejandro Mayorkas about sanctuary policies.

Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:

https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript

Stay Connected
Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes
More From Forbes: http://forbes.com

Transcript

00:00 recognize the distinguished ranking member, Mr. Cuellar.

00:02 Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

00:05 You've been to Texas.

00:07 You've seen the border wall, the levy wall,

00:08 so we have up there.

00:09 When somebody is asking for asylum,

00:11 don't they all have to do is just touch the riverbank?

00:15 Once they step on United States soil, ranking member Cuellar,

00:20 they have a lawful right to claim asylum.

00:24 And since we have a 1,200 mile river,

00:29 the fences that we have are not in the middle of the river,

00:31 which is really the international boundary.

00:33 They're not at the riverbanks, but they're actually

00:35 a quarter mile or even longer away, correct?

00:38 In certain places, that is indeed correct.

00:41 Thank you.

00:42 Let me ask you, according to the numbers

00:48 that I've seen from you all, most of the drugs

00:51 that we have coming in are coming

00:53 through ports of entry--

00:55 meth, cocaine, fentanyl-- up to 94%

00:59 are coming through ports of entry.

01:00 Is that correct?

01:01 With respect to the southern border, yes, that is correct.

01:04 I believe it is.

01:06 Our data, our intelligence and analysis

01:09 demonstrate that approximately 90%, if not more,

01:12 of the drugs entering the country through the border

01:16 arrived through or smuggled in through the ports of entry.

01:20 So I just want to ask you that whatever

01:22 monies that we added for technology,

01:24 they're non-intrusive, move on that as much as possible

01:27 so we can have them not only at the ports of entry,

01:30 but also in the border patrol checkpoints also.

01:33 I would ask you to move those as soon as possible.

01:37 And according to the US Sentencing Commission,

01:40 86% to 87% of the people who are smuggling drugs

01:45 at the ports of entry or at the checkpoints

01:47 are US citizens, correct?

01:49 I'm not certain about the precise percentage,

01:52 but I do understand that the data evidences

01:56 that the majority are United States citizens.

01:59 The last numbers I saw were about 86%, 87% US citizens.

02:03 Now, let me go back to, I'm a big believer in expedited,

02:07 Title VIII expedited.

02:09 What resources, I'll ask you again,

02:11 like more asylum officers, space,

02:15 do you need so we can do expedited removals

02:18 under Title VIII?

02:22 - Ranking Member Cuero,

02:23 in addition to additional legal authority,

02:26 which we would have been provided

02:28 under the bipartisan legislation,

02:30 many more asylum officers, immigration,

02:35 I'm sorry, enforcement and removal officers

02:39 in immigration and customs enforcement,

02:41 additional personnel, additional customs

02:45 and border protection personnel, additional facilities.

02:50 And those are some of the highlights

02:52 with respect to what we need,

02:54 but underlying it is the additional legal authority

02:57 that the bipartisan legislation would have delivered.

03:01 - And we certainly wanna provide you the funding.

03:04 I, again, I just have to say this, Mr. Chairman,

03:08 the two last appropriation bills,

03:10 what we added $1.4 billion to CBP,

03:13 every single person on the other side of the aisle,

03:17 except for two that are still in Congress,

03:19 voted no for that extra money.

03:22 This last appropriations bill,

03:23 where we added the largest amount to CBP,

03:27 I think less than half of the majority,

03:30 majority voted for funding.

03:32 So we gotta make sure that we all work together

03:34 to do bipartisan funding to give you this.

03:37 Now, the last question on expedited removal,

03:39 again, I believe in expedited removal of Title VIII.

03:42 It was used very effectively

03:44 when you were with the Obama administration

03:47 under Secretary Jay Johnson.

03:49 You said that the only way we can use CBP removal

03:53 or Title VIII if they're under CBP custody,

03:56 would a monitoring system still be under CBP?

04:01 And I guess you can't answer that,

04:04 but I want you to think about it

04:05 then go back to your attorneys

04:07 to see if you can use Title VIII expedited removal,

04:11 because custody means probably under,

04:16 ICE or CBP facility, but we do use monitoring.

04:21 And I would ask you to see if you can look at that,

04:24 whether that will be custody,

04:26 which my opinion, I would say yes,

04:29 and see if you can use Title VIII expedited removal.

04:33 And again, anything that we can change the law,

04:37 and I don't know what y'all are looking at,

04:40 the executive order, but we do know

04:43 that at the very beginning,

04:45 a lot of those people don't qualify.

04:47 They do not qualify without due respect.

04:50 If they're hungry, they want a job,

04:52 they want to come to the US or the Chinese city

04:54 on top of the hill, I understand that,

04:56 but they don't qualify under the five persecution

05:00 under asylum law.

05:01 So we want to work with you, we want to support you.

05:05 And again, you have a very difficult job.

05:07 There are so many opinions here.

05:09 You get attacked because you do too much

05:12 or you get attacked for not doing enough.

05:14 But I do want to say, I want to thank you for your service,

05:17 and I want to thank the men and women

05:19 that work on your department.

05:21 Thank you. - Thank you very much.

05:22 - God bless. - Thank you, Mr. Cuere.

05:24 - Thank you, Mr. Cuere.

05:25 We now recognize Mrs. Hinson.

05:27 - Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

05:29 Mr. Secretary, last year, when you came before this-

Alejandro Mayorkas Reveals Migrants Only Have To Touch River Bank To Claim Asylum In The US

Category

Transcript

Recommended