Transcript: Alejandro Mayorkas on
The next is the complete transcript of an interview with Homeland Safety Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” that aired on Dec. 22, 2024.
MARGARET BRENNAN: I need to speak to you broadly concerning the setting we’re in. It is a fairly important one. Your potential successor, Kristi Noem, Donald Trump’s decide to run Homeland Safety, has no regulation enforcement expertise and has by no means labored at an company like this. Have you ever spoken to her but? And what do you assume her greatest problem will likely be?
SECRETARY MAYORKAS: I’ve. I’ve spoken with the governor. We had a really constructive dialog. We’re each completely aligned on our dedication to a clean and efficient transition. I care very deeply concerning the well-being of this division, dedicating so a few years to public service, she expressed her dedication to the well-being of this division. She is a governor, so she is aware of lead, and I’m optimistic and hopeful and devoted to her success.
MARGARET BRENNAN: There have been hiccups with transition to date, by way of even simply the data that’s being shared due to these lack of signing off on paperwork at sure authorities companies. What’s it going like? How clean is it right here?
SECRETARY MAYORKAS: Right here, the transition crew has landed on the Division of Homeland Safety. We’ve begun to supply paperwork and supply info to the transition crew. I occurred to run into the transition crew chief yesterday right here at DHS headquarters and- and we’re working properly collectively.
MARGARET BRENNAN: However do you have got a way but of what issues will likely be like? You mentioned you are nervous concerning the division. There is a vow to chop again on bureaucrats. Do you assume a number of these employees that you just say you are devoted to will not have jobs in a couple of months?
SECRETARY MAYORKAS: Oh, I hope that is not the case. We’re, fairly frankly, a perennially under-resourced division. You already know, folks check out our price range and, and take into consideration how massive it’s, however one has to measure how massive it’s in comparison with what the mission calls for are, and people mission calls for are extremely huge. Our division is a sprawling one. Our mission is very numerous. In fact, the border receives a substantial amount of consideration, however the cyber safety challenges, the legal investigative work that we carry out, the catastrophe response that we execute, maritime safety, our United States Coast Guard, our protecting mission by United States Secret Service. We have been talking earlier of TSA and a lot extra. Our department- the problem for the governor coming in is to handle such a various set of missions, however luckily, she is going to have the ability to depend on terribly devoted and proficient specialists on this division. We can not afford to lose any.
MARGARET BRENNAN: It is a heightened menace setting on the international entrance, on the home entrance, we just lately noticed that killing of the United HealthCare division CEO on the streets of Manhattan. Manhattan prosecutors known as it a killing that was supposed to evoke terror. Would you think about him a terrorist? Is that this home violent extremism?
SECRETARY MAYORKAS: Nicely, Margaret, it is not for me to touch upon a pending legal case, I cannot try this. To start with, allow us to take a step again and notice the large tragedy. A father of two youngsters, a household man was murdered in New York Metropolis in chilly blood, firstly. Secondly, you spoke of the heightened menace setting, the rhetoric on social media following that, that homicide is very alarming. It speaks of what’s actually effervescent right here on this nation, and sadly we see that manifested in violence, the home violent extremism that exists. The specter of it in the US is without doubt one of the nice menace streams that we should counter. In fact, there’s additionally the specter of international terrorism, in addition to the actions of adversarial nation states.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Once you say one thing’s effervescent, what is the nationwide development that you just’re seeing?
SECRETARY MAYORKAS: I- look now we have been involved concerning the rhetoric on social media for a while–
MARGARET BRENNAN: –And that is in opposition to CEOs, that is in opposition to the federal government, that is in opposition to management.
SECRETARY MAYORKAS: We have seen narratives of hate. We have seen narratives of anti-government sentiment. We have seen private grievances within the language of violence, accompanying or being part of these narratives, is one thing that we’re very involved about, that, that may be a heightened menace setting. I nonetheless am alarmed, although, by the the the heroism that’s being attributed to an alleged assassin of a father of two youngsters on the streets in New York Metropolis.
MARGARET BRENNAN: And a number of that appears to be across the healthcare business and what that firm was doing, it is depersonalized. The sufferer is depersonalized.
SECRETARY MAYORKAS: And and the sufferer is an individual–
MARGARET BRENNAN: Yeah.
SECRETARY MAYORKAS: And the sufferer is a husband, and the sufferer is a father.
MARGARET BRENNAN: I ask you a couple of development, as a result of typically these items are mentioned in purely political phrases, as political violence, but it surely looks like you are saying it is nearly broader.
SECRETARY MAYORKAS: Oh it’s. It’s. It isn’t purely a political rhetoric. We see a variety of narratives that’s- that basically drive some people to violence, and now we have a accountability to know the menace panorama and see what we are able to do working with communities to forestall that violence from truly occurring.
MARGARET BRENNAN: I imply there have been stories through the hurricane aftermath in North Carolina about militias in search of FEMA employees, for federal response employees.
SECRETARY MAYORKAS: So we needed to pull FEMA employees out of the sphere who have been responding to victims’ wants due to false info that was intentionally disseminated on social media, comparable to, ‘the FEMA employee is coming to take your land.’ Completely false. They’re there at nice private sacrifice to assist others. That is who they’re. And we needed to pull them from the sphere by cause of that menace setting, quickly, albeit, however nonetheless impactfully.
MARGARET BRENNAN: That simply exhibits an enormous not simply distrust- however you have been nervous about the specter of violence in opposition to them
SECRETARY MAYORKAS: We most actually have been. And I’ve to inform you, the FEMA worker who’s engaged in a search and rescue mission doesn’t ask concerning the political get together of the person whom that FEMA worker is rescuing.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Nicely, mustn’t.
SECRETARY MAYORKAS: That’s- and doesn’t, and that may be a rescue operation.
MARGARET BRENNAN: We talked about how broad your portfolio is. So I need to transfer to a different a part of that, the US border. ‘Face the Nation’ has been to the border, toured among the federal amenities, and we noticed a few of these young children who got here throughout with out dad and mom and with out caregivers. And I do not think- I actually will not ever overlook that. There have been additionally youngsters who have been separated from their households by the Trump administration. The final report we noticed exhibits that Homeland Safety reunified simply in need of 800 youngsters with their dad and mom. Why is it so laborious to reunite households, and the way a lot unfinished enterprise are you forsaking right here?
SECRETARY MAYORKAS: So we’re very pleased with the work that we carried out by way of the Household Reunification Activity Pressure, a multi-agency effort that I led right here within the Division of Homeland Safety. However there’s extra work to be achieved. A number of the dad and mom who have been eliminated are troublesome to seek out. Some are reluctant to return ahead, nervous that the separation may happen once more. We’re coping with susceptible populations who’ve gone by way of trauma. So there are a myriad of challenges, a few of which now we have been capable of overcome, as you notice, for 800 or so households, however there’s extra work to be achieved.
MARGARET BRENNAN: What number of are left?
SECRETARY MAYORKAS: It’s unclear, as a result of the- we weren’t left with good data, information was not stored, and in order that was additionally one of many nice challenges that we needed to overcome. We couldn’t have achieved our work, what we completed, with out the partnership of teams locally that had different connections to separated households.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Non-government companies. ICE was additionally unable to account for greater than 32,000 unaccompanied children who failed to look in courtroom from 2019 to 2023 based on the report we learn. The incoming border czar, Tom Homan, says these youngsters are being exploited and trafficked. Is that true?
SECRETARY MAYORKAS: Nicely, we–
MARGARET BRENNAN: Have you learnt?
SECRETARY MAYORKAS: Margaret, we actually have obtained stories of kids being trafficked, even these as to whom we all know the place they’re. That’s exterior the accountability of the Division of Homeland Safety. What we do is we flip youngsters over inside 72 hours, because the regulation requires, to the Division of Well being and Human Companies, after which HHS locations these youngsters. In fact, we examine circumstances of trafficking, however there are kids who’re reunited with a guardian right here in the US or a authorized guardian, they usually transfer and generally the federal government loses observe. People don’t adjust to the reporting obligations or in any other case, I believe it’s inaccurate to say that each one of them are trafficked or victimized. There are a selection of the reason why we would lose observe of a person that’s not essentially particular to this administration. That has been a protracted standing problem within the immigration system, one instance of why that system is so damaged, why the period of time in proceedings is unacceptably lengthy and must be remedied. Keep in mind, we’re coping with a system that was final reformed in 1996.
MARGARET BRENNAN: So what extra are you able to do to fight the trafficking that’s taking place of a few of these youngsters, or the exploitation of a few of these youngsters, is that as much as Congress as properly, or can Homeland do extra properly?
SECRETARY MAYORKAS: We’ve achieved extra. As a matter of truth, our complete worksite enforcement technique has been to focus our legal investigators and our different officers on employers who exploit susceptible people, together with underage people, and benefit from the actual fact they that they’re migrants searching for work in the US and pay them substandard wages, have them employed in substandard working situations and the like. And so that’s the place now we have, I might submit accurately, centered our energies, and we have been unprecedented in that focus and within the success of that focus. We want extra sources. The issue of the-
MARGARET BRENNAN: It is a cash drawback?
SECRETARY MAYORKAS: We want extra personnel. We actually do.
MARGARET BRENNAN: However the exploitation of them, are you restricted in your authorities at this level, when the Trump administration guarantees they may change it? Can they modify it?
SECRETARY MAYORKAS: This was a- this has been an issue that has been a long time lengthy. This isn’t a brand new drawback. I want them large success. I’ll assist them of their efforts to finish the scourge of human exploitation and human trafficking.
MARGARET BRENNAN: So at this level final yr, in December of final yr, border crossings have been at file highs. Now they’ve dropped to the bottom degree of the Biden administration. How a lot of that drop off is as a result of Mexico is now stopping migrants from even attending to that southern border with the US?
SECRETARY MAYORKAS: That’s critically one component of it. It isn’t the one component of it. The President took decisive motion after politics killed what would have been a very enduring answer to what’s a damaged immigration system, that bipartisan laws that I used to be very proud to be part of would have- would have actually delivered an answer. As a result of politics killed it, the President took government motion in June of this yr, we started to execute very efficiently and really quickly that government motion. And that has been a key driver of the- the low variety of encounters at our border we at the moment are delivering to the incoming administration, a southern border at which the variety of people encountered is properly beneath the extent skilled in 2019 the final yr earlier than the pandemic.
MARGARET BRENNAN: However the immigration surge into the US since 2021 has been the biggest in American historical past.
SECRETARY MAYORKAS: Sure
MARGARET BRENNAN: That’s unbelievable. So–
SECRETARY MAYORKAS: Oh, it’s Margaret. It’s one component of the best displacement of individuals on this planet since World Battle Two. It is a phenomenon that has not been distinctive to the southern border of the US. It- it’s one thing that has gripped all the hemisphere and the world. After I communicate to our companions from the 5 Eyes, our closest allies, Canada, the UK, Australia, New Zealand, they elevate immigration as the primary subject of concern to them. That is one thing not distinctive to the US.
MARGARET BRENNAN: It is not and it has large political impression.
SECRETARY MAYORKAS: It has an amazing political impression, and that’s the reason we’d like Congress to behave in the- in the- within the wake of Congress’s failure to behave, the President took government motion, and due to this fact we’re delivering to the incoming administration a border that’s safer than it was in 2019.
MARGARET BRENNAN: However the Biden administration, and I believe you have got mentioned to me, one of many very first issues the Biden administration did was ask Congress to behave within the earliest days, after which quick ahead, you had this bipartisan close to miss on a border invoice all that point handed, why wait till 5 months earlier than the US election to place in place these asylum restrictions that did reduce off the movement? That ended the disaster?
SECRETARY MAYORKAS: Margaret bear in mind the place we have been when the President took workplace. We have been within the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. The prior administration had imposed title 42 which is a public well being authority, and enabled us to expel people, to proceed to expel people on the border, because the prior administration had achieved. There was large strain to keep up the workings of Title 42 which we did. Keep in mind- and that was strain to keep up Title 42 a bipartisan strain that–
MARGARET BRENNAN: — Which was pinned on the CDC as a well being measure. However positive, sure.
SECRETARY MAYORKAS: That held till Might of 2023 and we ended the workings of Title 42 as a result of this nation had escaped the throes of COVID 19 extra quickly and extra efficiently than any nation within the hemisphere and, fairly frankly, the world. We then turned to Congress and we requested for supplemental funding that was desperately wanted to make our administration of a damaged immigration system work a lot better. We have been denied. We went again to Congress a second time and requested supplemental funding. Denied, regardless of a determined want for it. We then turned to the bipartisan negotiations, which proved profitable, which have been then killed. The results of it, a very terrific answer was killed by irresponsible politics. Wanting again now in hindsight, in 2020 if we had identified that irresponsible politics would have killed what was clearly a meritorious effort and a meritorious consequence, maybe we might have taken government motion extra quickly.
MARGARET BRENNAN: As a result of Republicans argue on this backwards and forwards over whose job it’s to repair the issue, Congress would argue there was government authority that would have been used earlier than Congress legislated, they usually level again to the disaster, beginning at day one, when Trump-era immigration coverage was peeled again. Stay in Mexico, the 100 day moratorium on most deportations that was introduced, the halt to wall development. Did these measures, and I do know you were not but in workplace, personally, however did these measures set you up for failure?
SECRETARY MAYORKAS: Keep in mind one thing, Stay in Mexico is touted as the good panacea. In 2018, and I will likely be approximate in my numbers Margaret, in 2018 there have been roughly 550- 560,000 people encountered on the southern border. Stay in Mexico was applied in January of 2019. In 2019 there have been roughly 960- 970,000 people encountered on the southern border. The development traces of migration have been growing fairly exponentially from 2018 to 2019 and that’s mirrored worldwide. After which the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Keep in mind one thing additionally concerning the government motion that the President took in Might- in- in June of this yr. We additionally, over time, constructed capabilities that we didn’t beforehand have. Not simply domestically, the variety of amenities that we stood up, the flexibility to move people and decompress areas that have been experiencing surges of people, however our negotiations with Mexico, with different international locations in Latin America and around the globe. We at the moment are eradicating or returning extra people in three years than the prior administration did in 4. And we’re doing so not solely better in quantity, however better in pace, due to the negotiations with different international locations and to extra international locations than has ever been the case. We’ve been eradicating Chinese language nationals who don’t have any lawful foundation to stay in the US again to the Individuals’s Republic of China for the primary time since 2018 and now we have run quite a few removing flights to that nation.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Nicely, why did not we hear extra about these enforcement actions through the election cycle, when immigration was so key?
SECRETARY MAYORKAS: Margaret, we have been executing on enforcement at an unprecedented degree all through this administration. And ICE simply revealed information that evidences that fairly powerfully.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Yeah, on that information. So, President Obama was referred to by activists because the deporter in chief, due to the massive variety of deportations on his watch. However that information you simply cited exhibits deportation of migrants is at a ten yr excessive underneath President Biden. A ten yr excessive. So what shifted at DHS that- that prompted this deportation of greater than what 200,000 unauthorized migrants from the US this yr. That- that is one of many highest numbers in current years–
SECRETARY MAYORKAS:– Margaret–
MARGARET BRENNAN: — If Congress did not provide the energy, how did you do it?
SECRETARY MAYORKAS: Margaret, we did it with talent, with technique, and with unflinching dedication to that mission, and let me share with you, I’m an immigrant to this nation, and what this nation gave me drove me to public service. I spent my first 12 years in authorities service as a federal prosecutor, and the conclusion that I’ve lived and the conclusion that defines this nation is the next, that we’re a nation of legal guidelines and a nation of immigrants, and if people should not have a lawful foundation to stay in the US, we’ll take away them.
MARGARET BRENNAN: However it could additionally recommend that there’s the flexibility to do it with out Congress appearing, proper? That is the draw back of exhibiting you may make it work.
SECRETARY MAYORKAS: Sure- however Margaret, we made these very spectacular statistics occur. However there’s way more work to do, and what now we have to do is to make sure that the issue doesn’t proceed. This damaged system must be mounted. And it is not simply to make sure that people who should not have a lawful foundation to stay in the US are eliminated, but it surely’s additionally to make sure that we’re offering humanitarian aid to those that qualify considered one of our proudest traditions, and that we’re additionally fueling the financial system. Our want for expert labor is one thing that we hear from corporations and public officers, no matter get together affiliation, and but we’re capped on the variety of expert employees that we are able to introduce into the US financial system. By figures, by ceiling set in 1996.
MARGARET BRENNAN: You are speaking about H-1b visas and expert employee visas, issues like that.
SECRETARY MAYORKAS: Sure.
MARGARET BRENNAN: However by way of the enforcement actions right here, Goldman Sachs estimates greater than half of the migrants since 2021 entered illegally. Does that sound correct to you? Roughly 5 million folks entered the US illegally?
SECRETARY MAYORKAS: Keep in mind, a sure quantity have been encountered on the border. However now we have, as you cited earlier, now we have eliminated, returned and expelled, given the operation of Title 42 through the COVID-19 pandemic, a rare quantity, and we proceed to return or take away people. However there is no such thing as a query, there is no such thing as a query, and it is a signal of a damaged immigration system- that people who have been encountered on the border are in the US, however they’re in immigration enforcement proceedings. One of many issues is that these proceedings take seven to 10 years earlier than they’re resolved, as a result of our immigration courtroom system is so backlogged, and that backlog has been growing yr, over yr, over yr, ever since I can bear in mind and I entered the Division of Homeland Safety for the primary time in 2009.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Nicely, Donald Trump says throughout the first 100 days, they’ll have a surge of sources by way of Congress to hold out what he’s calling mass deportations. The previous ICE chief Tom Homan, who used to work with you.
SECRETARY MAYORKAS: Sure.
MARGARET BRENNAN: We went again and appeared. He is praised you. He mentioned, “Me and Ali did not at all times agree on immigration, however he listened. He is an ideal American, and he loves this nation.”
SECRETARY MAYORKAS: That’s, that’s true. That’s-
MARGARET BRENNAN: — Loads has changed–
SECRETARY MAYORKAS: I like- I like this nation. I’ve labored very intently with Tom Homan, and I am very pleased with the work that he and I carried out collectively.
MARGARET BRENNAN: However he mentioned you had a the place he advised Tucker Carlson, you two had a falling out over transgender coverage and ICE detention amenities, and he was pressured to signal one thing that offered medical care to them. Is that the way you bear in mind issues and- and that is the one that will likely be a part of finishing up the insurance policies you say must be mounted?
SECRETARY MAYORKAS: I used to be disenchanted to be taught of that assertion that is not true.
MARGARET BRENNAN: That wasn’t a falling out between the 2 of you?
SECRETARY MAYORKAS: No, I did not have a falling out with- with Tom Homan. We labored very properly collectively all through my tenure because the Deputy Secretary of the Division of Homeland Safety. I used to be disenchanted to listen to that.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Is that simply politics?
SECRETARY MAYORKAS: I- I can inform you this, it is not true. No matter it’s, shouldn’t be true.
MARGARET BRENNAN: You’ve gotten been the recipient of a number of upset over the immigration coverage due to your job. You’re the face of it, proper? And the Republican Home impeached you. I’m wondering whenever you go away this workplace, are you involved about your private safety?
SECRETARY MAYORKAS: Margaret, I am extremely pleased with the work that this division has achieved over the previous 4 years as I have been privileged to function its secretary. I am very unhappy to go away the division, and it mirrors the disappointment I’ve felt every time. I’ve left the federal authorities as a political appointee. I began as a profession appointee. I’ve- I place confidence in the American folks. That religion is after we see a cold-blooded homicide of a United Well being Care government, it’s- it is rattled, however that is the actions of a- of a person not reflective of the American public and of the democracy during which we reside. I’m the face- I’m the face of it, and that may be a accountability I willingly assumed after I agreed to take this place.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Yeah, it is a query. And you understand why I needed to ask it due to the setting we’re in. I need to ask you about China, if I may, earlier than we go. You mentioned just lately that this large Chinese language hacking generally known as Salt Hurricane, the hacking of eight telecom corporations that siphoned up this metadata, the cellphone name data, logs and knowledge for hundreds of thousands, doubtlessly of Individuals, was accessed. Why hasn’t the US authorities stopped it?
SECRETARY MAYORKAS: Nicely, to start with, the intrusion is a really important one and a very impactful one and a completely unacceptable one. And the President has demonstrated a powerful response to the Individuals’s Republic of China. It is extremely sophisticated–
MARGARET BRENNAN: — Rhetorically?–
SEC. MAYORKAS: I am sorry,
MARGARET BRENNAN: Rhetorically? When he met with Xi Jinping?
SECRETARY MAYORKAS: Nicely, only in the near past, the US Division of Commerce proposed an motion in opposition to China Telecom. So that is an ongoing scenario. It isn’t static. The intrusion is a really refined one. The telecommunications corporations are working very vigorously to remediate it. They’re working in partnership with us, with the cyber safety and infrastructure safety company throughout the Division of Homeland Safety, with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and different companies of the federal authorities. So it is a partnership in an effort to remediate the scenario. It is extremely difficult, and we’re very devoted to it.
MARGARET BRENNAN: That is the biggest intelligence compromise, doubtlessly in US historical past.
SECRETARY MAYORKAS: It’s a very critical compromise, and requires very critical motion to remediate and recuperate from it, and in addition very critical response to it.
MARGARET BRENNAN: How did you discover it?
SECRETARY MAYORKAS: That isn’t one thing I can- I can communicate to.
MARGARET BRENNAN: The incoming nationwide safety advisor to Donald Trump, Mike Waltz was on Face the Nation final Sunday and mentioned the US must go on offense, begin imposing larger prices and penalties to folks and entities like international locations stealing information, but in addition to those that spy on us they’re, “actually, placing cyber time bombs on our infrastructure, our water techniques, our grids, even our ports.” A cyber time bomb. Is that what’s taking place?
SECRETARY MAYORKAS: You- we began our dialogue talking a couple of heightened menace setting, and I recognized three vectors, three main vectors, the specter of international terrorism. And clearly we’re keenly centered on the instability in Syria, and whether or not that may create some area for the reemergence of ISIS there. And international terrorism is, after all, the founding cause for our Division of Homeland Safety, the specter of home violent extremism. And we have talked about that and I discussed the actions of adversarial nation states. It’s actually a rare time now. Antagonistic nation states have exhibited a willingness to make use of the cyber area in an effort to. To threaten our homeland safety and our nationwide safety. The infiltration, the hack of the telecommunications corporations is one instance. We have seen important infrastructure hacked as properly, and it does require a response, and I’m assured that the incoming administration will likely be vigilant in executing that response.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Would you place that on the prime of the listing for the incoming Secretary?
SECRETARY MAYORKAS: Would put that on the prime of the listing. Whether or not it is on the very prime, I might need to assume by way of, however it’s on the prime of the listing most actually.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Lastly, as you come to the time, as you come to the tip of your time right here, what’s the factor that retains you up at evening?
SECRETARY MAYORKAS: Margaret, we- it is not singular. It is not singular. Our mission area is so huge. Our mission is so numerous. There are challenges in every space of this division. Should you requested me for an embracing concern, it’s the security and safety of the American folks that’s our dedication, and guaranteeing that that’s preserved and never in any means encroached upon, is our highest obligation, and I am extremely proud to serve it.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Mr. Secretary, thanks in your time. Thanks,
SECRETARY MAYORKAS: Thanks, Margaret.
