Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas once again did everything he could to avoid the disastrous situation at the U.S.-Mexico border a "crisis" during an interview with CNN on Friday.
CNN host Poppy Harlow point blank asked Mayorkas if the situation was a crisis.
"You know, we — we have seen the situation at the border managed in an orderly way. We have seen it in extraordinary challenging circumstances as well. You can rest assured, Poppy, that we’re doing everything that we possibly can to build a system that provides humanitarian relief in a safe and orderly way, while trying to persuade Congress to fix what is a broken system," Mayorkas replied.
"I understand that. But just what you’re seeing, what you’ve seen the 20 times you’ve been there, the record number of migrants at the southern border, and last year it was nearly 2.4 million, if that’s not a crisis, Secretary, what is?" Harlow pressed.
"You know, Poppy, we have seen 2.4 million encounters at our southern border, and it is reflective of the greatest level of displacement of people in the world since World War II. It is reflective of a migration challenge that is gripping the entire hemisphere. When I was in Colombia, I spoke with the president of the country, the foreign minister, the minister of security, and they spoke of 2.4 million Venezuelans in Columbia now," Mayrokas said.
"We’re seeing Costa Rica’s population increasingly formed by Nicaraguans. We’re seeing a tremendous movement of people throughout the hemisphere. A regional challenge requires a regional solution, which is why President Biden has led the regional leaders in addressing it," he continued.
Mayorkas has previously admitted during private meetings with Border Patrol that the situation is a crisis but he has yet to make those comments publicly.
The Biden administration unveiled a new plan to address the border crisis on Thursday, ahead of President Joe Biden's trip to El Paso, Texas. It involves some nationalities, who are currently crossing the border illegally in large numbers, to schedule an appointment through an app to surrender at a port of entry.