US Govt: Border is closed
‘‘We are expelling families. We are expelling single adults.’’
Alejandro Mayorkas Department of Homeland Security Secretary
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas defended President Joe Biden’s immigration strategy and emphasised in interviews yesterday that the US-Mexico border ‘‘is closed’’ as the Biden administration faces criticism over a record number of migrants seeking entry into the country from Mexico and Central America.
Mayorkas, who appeared on almost all of the major political shows Sunday morning US time, sought to push a consistent message as the Biden administration is being pressed about conditions in overcrowded detention centers for unaccompanied immigrant children.
‘‘The border is closed. We are expelling families. We are expelling single adults,’’ Mayorkas said on NBC’s Meet the Press, adding that unaccompanied minors should not attempt to make any journey to the USMexico border now. ‘‘We strongly urge, and the message is clear,
not to do so now. I cannot overstate the perils of the journey that they take.’’
Mayorkas said the administration’s ‘‘message has been straightforward and simple,’’ and Biden last week disputed that the surge was a result of his overturning some of former president Donald Trump’s policies.
But the message coming from the administration has at times been conflicting, particularly Mayorkas’s message that asylum seekers should not come ‘‘now’’ while other members of the administration have said they should not come period, and seek asylum from where they are. That has frustrated even some of their Democratic allies steeped in immigration issues.
Arizona Governor Doug Ducey, a Republican, blamed Biden for changing or doing away with Trump policies including ‘‘remain in Mexico,’’ which under the previous administration meant asylum seekers needed to wait outside of the US for their cases to be decided.
‘‘It was working. It disincentivised people from taking this dangerous trip,’’ Ducey said of the policy on ABC’s This Week.
Republicans have blamed Biden’s rollbacks for the rise in migrants arriving, saying he changed Trump’s policies prematurely and without backup systems in place. Democrats have emphasised that they are attempting to take a more humane approach to immigration.
Mayorkas yesterday reiterated that the Biden administration would not ‘‘expel into the Mexican desert’’ young, vulnerable children like the last administration did. He also blamed Trump for dismantling processes such as the Central American minors programme, which laid out an ‘‘orderly, human and efficient way of allowing children to make their claims under United States law in their home countries.’’