National Review
DHS Secretary predicts that increase in migrants will break 20-year record, blames Trump’s policies
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas warned that the number of illegal immigrants crossing the US-Mexico border could reach levels not seen 20 years ago, in a statement on Tuesday about the emerging crisis on the border. Mayorkas attributed the crisis to a confluence of poverty and violence in Mexico and the Northern Triangle countries, natural disasters, including November hurricanes and the coronavirus pandemic, and the policies of the Trump administration. There are currently more than 4,000 unaccompanied minors detained at the Border Patrol facilities, with another 9,000 under the care of the Department of Health and Human Services. “The situation on the southwestern border is difficult,” said Mayorkas in his statement. “We are on our way to meet more individuals on the southwestern border than in the past 20 years. We are kicking out many single adults and families. We are not expelling unaccompanied children ”. Mayorkas noted that the influx of migrants occurred in 2019, 2014 and in previous years. “Poverty, high levels of violence and corruption in Mexico and the countries of the Northern Triangle have driven migration to our southwestern border for years,” said Mayorkas. U.S. Customs and Border Protection reported that more than 100,000 migrants tried to cross the border in February, a 28% increase from the previous month and triple the number of migrants in February 2019. Many migrants believe that Biden will institute policies more flexible immigration policies. “Biden promised us that everything would change,” Gladys Oneida Pérez Cruz, a migrant from Honduras, told The New York Times on Sunday. “He hasn’t done that yet, but he will be a good president for migrants.” Pérez and his son, who has cerebral palsy, were rejected from the United States after smugglers claimed the border was open. Mayorkas also blamed the Trump administration for the crisis, saying it “completely dismantled the asylum system” and “cut funding for foreign aid to the North Triangle”. The Trump administration did in fact restore some of the aid to these countries in 2019 after they agreed to receive illegal immigrants expelled by the U.S. Mayorkas statement the day after a delegation of Republican representatives visited the U.S.-Mexico border in El Paso, Texas, and claiming president “created” the border crisis. Biden “must speak to border agents and inform them that this is beyond a crisis,” said minority leader in the House, Kevin McCarthy (R., California), at a news conference. “He may continue to deny it, but the only way to resolve it is, first, to admit what he did.” Republicans cited Biden’s removal from the Trump administration’s policies, as the “Stay in Mexico” rule, as fueling the crisis.