WASHINGTON • Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas was yesterday set to defend the approach of President Joe Biden's administration to a surge in immigrants at the US-Mexico border, as Republican lawmakers blamed its policies for creating a crisis.
Mr Mayorkas was due to testify before the House Homeland Security Committee, where he was expected to argue that the Trump administration left behind an inhumane and inadequate system that his department was working swiftly to revamp.
Mr Mayorkas had on Tuesday acknowledged that the US was on pace to encounter more migrants at the border than at any time in two decades, but said such spikes were "not new", having also occurred in 2019, 2014 and earlier.
Border crossings are threatening to become a political liability for Mr Biden.
On Jan 20, his first day in office, he had scrapped several of his predecessor Donald Trump's contentious immigration policies.
The actions he took included halting new construction of a border wall and proposing legislation to create a citizenship pathway for the nearly 11 million people living illegally in the US.
The next month, US Customs and Border Protection arrested about 100,000 people at the southern border - including nearly 9,500 unaccompanied children - a 28 per cent jump over January.
Mr Mayorkas' testimony was slated a day after Mr Biden urged migrants not to come to the US.
"Yes, I can say quite clearly, don't come over... Don't leave your town or city or community," the President said in an interview with ABC News on Tuesday, addressing the migrants.
Mr Biden shrugged off claims that his dismantling of Mr Trump's tough stance had encouraged the surge. "The idea that Joe Biden said 'come' - I heard the other day that they're coming because I'm a nice guy... Here's the deal, they're not," he said.
The President spoke a day after top Republican congressman Kevin McCarthy visited the border in Texas with fellow Republican lawmakers and accused Mr Biden of creating a "crisis".
Administration officials dispute that White House policies have been a factor in the rising number of arrivals at the border, saying the numbers have been growing since last April, well before it was clear that Mr Biden would win the presidential election.
Mr Mayorkas has repeatedly accused the Trump administration of having "dismantled" and "gutted" the immigration system.
In his 2,000-word statement on Tuesday, Mr Mayorkas said: "The situation we are currently facing at the south-west border is a difficult one. We are tackling it.
"We are keeping our borders secure, enforcing our laws and staying true to our values and principles."
His statement castigated the Trump administration for including "no appropriate planning for the pandemic at all", taking apart the asylum system and eliminating a programme that made it possible for Central American minors to apply for refugee resettlement from their home countries.
Mr Mayorkas also blasted the Trump administration for having cut aid to El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras meant to tackle the root causes of migration.
The Biden administration has asked Congress for US$4 billion (S$5.3 billion) in targeted aid to the region to help improve conditions that lead migrants to choose to leave their homes.
Mr Mayorkas also said that holding facilities for apprehended migrants are crowded, noting that the authorities had not "had the capacity to (take in) the number of unaccompanied children we have been encountering".
Complicating conditions, pandemic-related physical distancing protocols have further reduced space, said Mr Mayorkas, who has asked the Federal Emergency Management Agency to help activate additional facilities.
The Biden administration continues to expel most single adults and people travelling in families.
BLOOMBERG, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
