Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Sunday said his message to migrants heading to the U.S. -- including a projected 18,000 when Title 42 authority is lifted -- is: “Do not come.”
In an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Mayorkas declared, “Our border is not open.”
“What happens now is individuals are either expelled under the Title 42 authority or they are placed in immigration enforcement proceedings,” he said. “And they are removed if they do not have a valid claim under our law to remain. And so the border is not open. And importantly, they should not place their lives at risk in the hands of smugglers who exploit their lives for the mere purpose of profit.”
“Do not come,” he added.
According to Mayorkas, an influx at the highest projection of 18,000 would “strain our system.”
“That's precisely why our plan calls for a regional approach to what is a regional challenge,” he said. “We need countries to the south to manage their borders. This is not a phenomenon that the United States experiences alone. There are 1.8 million Venezuelans in Colombia. The Nicaraguans comprise almost 2% of the population in the small country of Costa Rica. We're seeing migration because of challenges that are not restricted to this area. They are global.”
In an interview on Fox News Sunday, Mayorkas also doubled down on that message, and asserted his department has “a handle” on migration to the southern border.
“We have got a handle on it and when I say ‘we,’.. it's not the Department of Homeland Security alone, it's the Federal Bureau of Investigation, it's our entire enforcement in intelligence enterprise.”
“We’re not letting people loose,” he declared.
“You know what happens to these individuals,” he added. “They are either expelled under the Title 42… or they are placed into immigration enforcement proceedings. They make their claims under the law. If those claims don't prevail, they are promptly removed from the United States.”
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Fran Beyer ✉
Fran Beyer is a writer with Newsmax and covers national politics.
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