Mayorkas refuses to define a ‘secure’ border when pressed by Chris Wallace

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas refused to define what makes a secure border in an interview with CNN that will air Sunday night on HBOMax.

CNN’s Chris Wallace asked Mayorkas to expand on what he means when he says the southern border is secure. Republicans that have called for his impeachment have criticized Mayorkas for claiming that the southern border is secure amid record flows of illegal migrants crossing in recent years.

“There is not a common definition of that. If one looks at the statutory definition, the literal interpretation of the statutory language, if one person successfully evades law enforcement at the border, then we have breached the security of the border,” Mayorkas told Wallace.

“What our goal is – to achieve operational control of the border, to do everything that we can to support our personnel with the resources, 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. And I say that, I say that, because in the prior administration, policies were promulgated, were passed, that did not hew to the values that we hold dear,” he continued.

Wallace also asked Mayorkas if his definition of a secure border means migrants aren’t illegally crossing.

“Of course not. By that measure, the border has never been secure, right?,” Mayorkas responded, according to CNN.

In fiscal year 2022, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) encountered a record of more than 2.3 million migrants at the southern border. The trend continued into the first few months of the following fiscal year, when CBP recorded more than 870,000 migrant encounters.

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