CNN host Chris Wallace went at it with Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas over his repeated assertions that the Southwest border of the U.S. “is secure.”

Mayorkas is under fire from House Republicans who have vowed to investigate and pursue impeachment over the handling of migration at the border.

On this week’s edition of HBO Max and CNN’s Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace, the host asked Mayorkas if he will appear before the committees in question, and the secretary said he intends to appear before Congress whenever he is called to do so.

Then, Wallace confronted Mayorkas with clips in which the DHS chief repeatedly says the border is “secure” — then made clear he was a hard “disagree” on that point:

CHRIS WALLACE: House Republicans say that you have repeatedly lied to Congress when you have said this. Take a look.

(VIDEO CLIP)

CHRIS WALLACE: Your critics point out in 2020 Donald Trump’s final year in office US border authorities encountered migrants 458,000 times at the border. But under Joe Biden in 2022, there were 2.3 million encounters. Mr. Secretary, that’s an increase of 419%. That’s more than quadruple, how can you say the border is secure?

SEC. MAYORKAS: A couple points. What was the volume of encounters in 2019 during the Trump administration, it wasn’t 400,000, it wasn’t 800,000, it wasn’t a million, it was many more. What was it in 2020 that impacted the flow of migrants. What caused the pent-up demand to leave a country that is suffering extreme poverty, extreme violence, authoritarian regime, what was the repressive factor in 2020? The pandemic. 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.

CHRIS WALLACE: But when you say it’s–what does secure mean to you? It certainly doesn’t mean that people aren’t able to get across the border illegally.

SEC. MAYORKAS: Of course not. By that measure, the border has never been secure, right? Since the Department of Homeland Security was created, Individuals have evaded–

CHRIS WALLACE: So, by what measure is it secure now sir?

SEC. MAYORKAS: So, there is not a common definition of that. If one looks at the statutory definition, the literal interpretation of the statutory language. If one person successfully evades law enforcement at the border, then we have breached the security of the border. So, what we try to do–

CHRIS WALLACE: What’s your definition?

SEC. MAYORKAS: What our goal, is to achieve operational control of the border, to do everything that we can to support our personnel with the resources, 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. And I say that, I say that, because in the prior administration, policies were promulgated, were passed, that did not hew to the values that we hold dear.

CHRIS WALLACE: That’s a point well taken, but on the question of security, on the question of people’s ability to come across the border illegally and get into this country, we have all seen the scenes of floods of people walking across shallow points in the Rio Grande. We’ve all seen the pictures of encampments in downtown’s in El Paso, places in Arizona. We’ve all seen the pictures of the flood of migrants coming to New York and you’ve got Mayor Adams, the Democratic mayor of New York City, saying he’s overwhelmed by migrants. By those standards, it is not a secure border.

SEC. MAYORKAS: Chris, I would say that by those standards, what powerful evidence of the fact that our immigration system is broken? 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 is that between that time of encounter, and the time of an ultimate immigration judges’ evaluation of their claim for asylum is four plus years. That is one of the reasons why we so desperately need our immigration system to be fixed.

CHRIS WALLACE: There’s a considerable disagreement whether these are legitimate asylum seekers or just simply people who want to cross the border because they think they’ll have a better life.

SEC. MAYORKAS: Of course, and so they make their claims. And the initial threshold for those claims under the law is lower than the ultimate asylum standard.

CHRIS WALLACE: Right but in the meantime they’re in this country for four years.

SEC. MAYORKAS: Correct. But that is a problem with our system. And not an issue of how we enforce the security of our border.

Watch above via HBO Max and CNN’s Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace.

The post ‘It Is Not A Secure Border!’ CNN’s Chris Wallace Goes At It With Biden DHS Chief Over Migrants first appeared on Mediaite.

from Mediaite https://ift.tt/lWPuzAC