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ABC Gives Mayorkas a 'Rare Reality Check' on Border

Leah Barkoukis
Leah Barkoukis  |  June 10, 2024 9:00 AM

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas was pressed Sunday about President Biden’s latest immigration executive order and the administration’s history of failing to secure the U.S.-Mexico border. 

"This has been in place for five days now. What has the impact been? How many migrants have been turned away between those ports of entry?" ABC News's Martha Raddatz asked. 

"Martha, we’re at a very early stage," Mayorkas replied. "Implementation, as you noted, has just begun. Our intent is to really change the risk calculus of individuals before they leave their countries of origin and incentivize them to use the lawful pathways that we have made available to them and keep them out of the hands of exploitative smugglers.

"It’s early," he continued. "The signs are positive. Our personnel have done an extraordinary job in implementing a very big shift in how we operate on the southern border."

“President Biden said, ‘This ban will remain in place until the number of people trying to enter illegally is reduced to a level that our system can effectively manage,’ meaning, as we said, that average of 1,500 encounters or less over a period of 14 days. We said that has never happened. Do you really expect that to happen in the coming months or before Election Day?” Raddatz wondered.

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“Martha, it is. 1,500, an average of 1,500 individuals encountered over a seven-day consecutive period. We are driving to that and that’s not all we’re doing. We are also communicating throughout the region about the lawful pathways, we are driving people to use— ” Mayorkas replied.

“But that’s something you’ve been doing all along; you’ve been trying to do that with people,” Raddatz interjected. 

She pulled up a clip from 2021 when Mayorkas claimed the administration knew how to handle the influx of illegal immigrants, pointing out that millions have entered in the country since then, with little changing on the immigration front over the last few years. 

"'We will succeed.' That was three years ago," she commented. "Since then, 6.5 million migrants have been apprehended along the southern border. It would be very hard to call that a success."