Watch: Mayorkas Admits As Many As 12K Out Of 17K Migrants Have Been Released Into US — ‘It Could Be Higher’
Joe Biden ’s Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas admitted that most of the illegal immigrants from Haiti who crossed the US-Mexico border recently have already been released into United States communities with a possibility of more to follow as the numbers continue to swell.
Currently, reports said only 3,000 of the thousands of Haitian immigrants are in detention as approximately 12,400 of them have their cases heard by immigration judges, while another 5,000 are being processed by the Department of Homeland Security.
“Approximately, I think it’s about ten thousand or so, twelve thousand,” Mayorkas told “Fox News Sunday” host Chris Wallace when asked how many have been released so far to US communities before acknowledging that the number could still go up as 5,000 more cases are in process.
“It could be even higher,” Mayorkas said.
“The number that are returned could be even higher. What we do is we follow the law as Congress has passed it,” he added.
Biden’s Homeland Security secretary then noted that the Democratic administration “will make determinations whether they will be returned to Haiti based on our public health and public interest authorities.”
Despite releasing them in the US, Mayorkas claimed that those released are “being monitored by us” as he noted that they have conditions placed on them.
He also said authorities are ensuring that they “appear in court as the law requires.”
Wallace then cited how the Department of Justice itself said 44% of illegal immigrants who are released in the US miss court appearances.
Prodded by the host whether many of the thousands who have just been released will just stay in the US and also miss court dates, Mayorkas insisted that the system put forward by the Biden administration will work.
“We have enforcement guidelines in place that provide the individuals who are recent border crossers who do not show up for their hearings as enforcement priorities and will be removed,” Mayorkas said.
Wallace noted then that there are already 11 million people in the US illegally, but Biden’s DHS secretary said this is just evidence that the current system is “broken’ and should be fixed.
In 2019, former acting DHS Secretary Kevin McAleenan also informed the Senate Judiciary Committee that federal law enforcement officers usually had issues with migrants failing to show up to immigration authorities after receiving notices to appear.
Since September 9, about 30,000 Haitians have entered Del Rio, Texas, according to the Biden administration.
Wallace asked Mayorkas why they were not apprehended, and the DHS secretary dodged the question, choosing to focus instead on what the Biden administration did afterward.
“We surged our resources, we surged our personnel,” Mayorkas said.
Wallace enquired once more why the people were not detained at the border and why the US had no physical barriers in the first place to prevent this.
To this, Mayorkas responded that the administration is just not in favor of building a wall.
“We do not agree with the building of the wall,” Mayorkas said. “The law provides that individuals can make a claim for humanitarian relief. That is actually one of our proudest traditions,” Biden’s DHS secretary said.
After a photo of an agent holding the reins of his horse while chasing a likely illegal immigrant near the US border appearing to be carrying a whip, Mayorkas was also asked about concerns that border patrol officials were using whips against migrants trying to cross the border.
Mayorkas said the images that went viral “painfully conjured up the worst elements of our nation’s ongoing battle against systemic racism,” only for the photographer to clarify that he has “never seen them whip anyone.”
Despite this, President Biden and progressives along with the mainstream media have continued to push the narrative that Border Patrol agents were whipping people, vowing that “those people will pay.”
