In April, "60 Minutes" correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi asked Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas an important question about the flood of migrants across the U.S. southern border, "Why won't you say the word ‘crisis’?” His response was a dodge: "You know what? Because I have tremendous faith in the people of the Department of Homeland Security.”
Mayorkas has a habit of pretending that concerns about our border security constitute disparagement of the border agents he oversees. Even his agents—who are actually witnessing the crisis—know that he is spinning the media to cover the failures of his own policies. His border chief, Raul Ortiz, told Congress just weeks earlier that the border was "in some areas, a crisis situation.”
His misdirections are applied almost everywhere. He tweeted on April 27, "Let me be clear - our border is not open and will not be open after May 11.” He also claims the federal government has operational control over the border, despite the fact that nearly 3.5 million migrants have crossed it illegally on his watch.
Now, as the Title 42 protections against illegal crossings expire, Mayorkas is conflating his obligation to secure the border with the separate challenge of reforming our immigration system. He told CBS’s “Face the Nation” this week “everything that the Department of Homeland Security is doing, everything that our partners across the federal government are doing, is within a broken immigration system."
On May 1, Mayorkas announced his six-pillar plan to manage the Title 42 expiration. It includes "surging resources” to the border, which causes border agents to ask why the resources have not been in place all along. Border Governors point out that the surge consists of 1,500 military personnel to help with administrative tasks only, and they dismiss the gesture as pointless.
The plan also includes efforts to "reduce processing times and improve the digitization of noncitizen processing.” None of this will help stop illegal crossings and, more likely, it will encourage more crossings. According to the DHS announcement, the agency "expects that encounters at the Southwest Border will increase as smugglers spread disinformation, which will place a strain on our immigration system, our communities, and our dedicated workforce.” What disinformation are the smugglers spreading?
The announcement repeats Mayorkas’ favorite talking point: “Until and unless Congress updates our outdated immigration and asylum statutes, the United States will continue to face challenges at the Southwest Border." The dodge has become a full-blown deflection of all responsibility.
Secretary Mayorkas is what "Succession's" Logan Roy would call, “not a serious person.” Nothing he says is meant to resolve the crisis, and no one takes anything he says seriously.