Mayorkas cites climate change as ‘root cause’ of border crisis

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas attributed some of the historic migration flows at the southern border to “the effects of climate change,” during an interview on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” Wednesday.

In December, federal authorities encountered roughly 300,000 migrants in the month alone at the southern border, marking the highest monthly total on record, according to Fox News. Mayorkas said such flows are a result of climate change, poverty, and authoritarianism happening across the globe.

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“We are seeing the greatest number of displaced people, not only at our southern border, not only in the Western hemisphere but across the globe. I am involved in bilateral and multi-lateral meetings with my counterparts from foreign countries in Europe, in Asia, in the Indo-Pacific, all over the world,” Mayorkas said.

Mayorkas, alongside Secretary of State Antony Blinken, recently met with Mexican officials but failed to announce any new measures to address the crisis at the southern border.

“And migration, the challenge of displaced people, is a subject that comes up in every single conversation. We have the effects of climate change, poverty, [and] increasing levels of authoritarianism. The very many challenges that are at the root cause of the displacement of people around the world,” Mayorkas said.

Border Patrol recorded more than 2 million encounters of migrants crossing the southern border illegally in fiscal year 2023 and more than 2.2 million in fiscal year 2022, according to federal data.

The Biden administration tasked Vice President Kamala Harris with addressing the “root causes of migration” in March 2021 but hasn’t held an event on the matter since February.

“Just after we took office, President Joe Biden outlined our Administration’s vision to reform our immigration system by creating a pathway to citizenship for the nearly 11 million undocumented migrants in our country, modernizing our immigration process, and effectively managing our border,” Harris said in a statement in July 2021 after visiting the southern border the previous month.

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