Three House committees
are currently investigating the border
as a possible prelude
to impeaching you
as secretary of Homeland Security.
Here is House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
Take a look.
I am calling on the secretary to resign
He cannot
and must not remain in that position.
If Secretary
Mayorkas does not resign,
House Republicans will investigate.
Every order, every action
and every failure will determine
whether we can begin impeachment inquiry.
If House Republicans go ahead,
you could be the first Cabinet secretary
to be impeached since 1876.
How seriously do you take these calls?
For your impeachment.
Oh, I take them. I take them seriously.
It is, it is the leadership
of the House that provided those remarks.
I don't dismiss it by by any measure,
but what I do is I focus on my work.
What do you think is the basis
for their calling for your impeachment?
Do you think you've done anything wrong?
No, I don't.
I think it is a disagreement over policy,
and I think it is used
for political purposes.
To continue a negative dialog
about a migration challenge
that is not unique to the United States.
To continue that dialog to uplift it
for political reasons.
So, Mr.
Secretary,
have you come to a conclusion
if these House committees
either request you or subpoena you
as part of either the investigation
or an impeachment proceeding,
have you decided whether or not
you will appear before those committees?
I intend to appear
when Congress calls me to do so.
House Republicans
say that you have repeatedly lied
to Congress when you have said this
take a lot
The border is closed.
The border is secure.
Critics point out in 20, 20,
Donald Trump's final year in office, U.S.
border authorities
encountered migrants
458,000 times at the border.
But under Joe Biden in 2022
there were 2.3 million encounters.
How can you say the border is secure
right now
the United States has millions of jobs
opening due to the economic success
of this administration.
We have progressed in conquering
the pandemic far
more than the countries
to the south of Mexico.
And that makes the United States
an appealing place of destination
for people
fleeing persecution
or otherwise in desperate
need of a better life.
But when you say
what does secure mean to you,
it certainly doesn't mean
that people aren't able
to get across the border illegally.
Of course not. That is that.
By that measure,
the border has never been secure. Right.
Since the Department of Homeland
Security was created,
individuals have invaded.
By what measure is it secure now, sir?
So there is not a common definition
of that.
What's your article
What's your definition?
Our goal
is to achieve
operational control of the border,
to do everything that we can
to support our personnel
with the resources is the technology,
the policies
that really advance
the security of the border
and do not come
at the cost of the values of our country.
But on the question of security.
We have all seen the scenes of
of floods, of people walking across
shallow points in the Rio Grande.
We've
all seen the pictures of encampments
in downtowns
in El Paso places in Arizona,
We've all seen the pictures
of the flood
of migrants
coming to New York by those standards.
It is not a secure border.
The vast
majority of those individuals
have not sought to evade law enforcement,
but have actually surrendered themselves
to law enforcement
and made a claim for relief
under our laws.
The challenge the challenge is that
between that time of encounter
and the time of an ultimate
immigration judges,
an evaluation of their claim
for asylum is four plus years.
Critics say that when he took office,
President Biden
setting the policy view and forcing
the policy,
send a clear message
to prospective migrants.
He ended enrollments in the program
that asylum seekers
had to remain in Mexico.
He wanted to stop using Title
42 public health
protections to expel migrants,
and he halted construction of the border
wall.
Here is the chief patrol agent,
your employee for the Tucson sector.
Take a look
in the
Tucson sector
interviewing people post-arrest.
What what became
the most common response
was that they believed
that when the administration changed,
that the law changed and policy changed
and that there was an open border.
Migrants believe there's an open
border across
Have you heard some of our
political leaders speak about the border
and communicate that the border is open?
I don't think the more than
1.5 million people
who have been removed
or expelled from the border
would consider the border open.
But political leaders
communicate that the border is open,
that is music to the smugglers ears
and the smugglers themselves to spread.
You're going to blame this
all on Republican website?
Not absolutely.
You're not going to say
that the administration
and the policies on Remain in Mexico
are title 42
or stopping construction of the wall
that that had no impact.
Chris, that's not what I said.
I'm just I'm just citing for you
a few things and please allow me.
Number one, they they use that rhetoric.
Number two,
we're dealing
with smuggling organizations
that are far more sophisticated
than than they were
when I prosecuted them for 12 years
as an assistant United States Attorney
and as the United States attorney.
They they spread disinformation.
They spread misinformation and the like.
Let's talk a little bit about you
because your life story is wrapped up
in this whole question of migration.
Your family left Cuba
when you were a baby.
I think you were one year old yes.
And your mother, Anita,
was already a
refugee because
she had fled the Nazis
from Romania to go to Cuba
and then fled
Cuba to go to the United States with you
and your
and your family when Castro took over.
How does all of that history
shape your view of people
crossing borders to improve their lives
and escape violence?
My parents instilled in me
the profound meaning of displacement,
the yearning
to give one's children a better life
than what the life one
has had,
the fragility of life.
And so I understand deeply
the plight of individuals
who leave their homes,
whether they flee persecution
or aspire to a better life.
We are a nation of immigrants.
We are also a nation of laws.
Those laws
provide for humanitarian relief
for those who qualify.
They also provide
that individuals
who do not qualify will be removed.
That's how that's how we do our work.
In the Department of Homeland Security
and the slings
and arrows
of your critics on Capitol Hill.
Not going to force you out.
They will not force me out.