Face the Nation moderator Margaret Brennan sits down with DHS Secretary Mayorkas for an exclusive interview
WASHINGTON (CBS, KYMA/KECY) - Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas spoke with Margaret Brennan on Face the Nation Sunday about the UnitedHealthcare CEO murder.
When Brennan asked Mayorkas if he considers Luigi Mangione, the man accused of Brian Thompson's murder, a terrorist, Mayorkas said:
"It's not for me to comment on a pending criminal case, I will not do that. First of all, let us take a step back and note the tremendous tragedy. A father of two children, a family man was murdered in New York City in cold blood, first and foremost. Secondly, you spoke of the heightened threat environment, the rhetoric on social media following that, that murder is extraordinarily alarming. It speaks of what is really bubbling here in this country, and unfortunately we see that manifested in violence, the domestic violent extremism that exists. The threat of it in the United States is one of the great threat streams that we must counter. Of course, there's also the threat of foreign terrorism, as well as the actions of adverse nation states."
During the interview, Brennan and Mayorkas talked about the southern border, with Brennan reporting that ICE was "unable to account for more than 32,000 unaccompanied kids who failed to appear in court from 2019 to 2023," with Tom Homan saying that the children are being exploited and trafficked.
When asked if this was true, Mayorkas said in part:
"We certainly have received reports of children being trafficked, even those as to whom we know where they are. That is outside the responsibility of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). What we do is we turn children over within 72 hours, as the law requires, to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and then HHS places those children. Of course, we investigate cases of trafficking, but there are children who are reunited with a parent here in the United States or a legal guardian, and they move and sometimes the government loses track. Individuals do not comply with the reporting obligations or otherwise, I think it is inaccurate to say that all of them are trafficked or victimized."
Brennan and Mayorkas talked about how the COVID-19 pandemic impacted the border.
"The prior administration had imposed title 42 which is a public health authority, and enabled us to expel individuals, to continue to expel individuals at the border, as the prior administration had done. There was tremendous pressure to maintain the workings of Title 42 which we did...and that was pressure to maintain Title 42, a bipartisan pressure that held until May of 2023 and we ended the workings of Title 42 because this country had escaped the throes of COVID 19 more rapidly and more successfully than any country in the hemisphere and, quite frankly, the world. We then turned to Congress and we asked for supplemental funding that was desperately needed to make our administration of a broken immigration system work much better. We were denied. We went back to Congress a second time and requested supplemental funding. Denied, despite a desperate need for it. We then turned to the bipartisan negotiations, which proved successful, which were then killed. The result of it, a really terrific solution was killed by irresponsible politics. Looking back now in hindsight, in 2020 if we had known that irresponsible politics would have killed what was clearly a meritorious effort and a meritorious result, perhaps we would have taken executive action more rapidly."
Alejandro Mayorkas, Department of Homeland Security Secretary
Brennan and Mayorkas also talked about the deportation strategy during the Biden Administration, with Brennan saying that a data that showing a deportation of migrants was at a 10-year high under President Joe Biden.
When asked what shifted at the DHS "hat prompted this deportation of more than what 200,000 unauthorized migrants from the United States this year," and how Mayorkas did it if Congress didn't give him the power, Mayorkas said:
"We did it with skill, with strategy, and with unflinching dedication to that mission, and let me share with you, I am an immigrant to this country, and what this country gave me drove me to public service. I spent my first 12 years in government service as a federal prosecutor, and the conclusion that I have lived and the conclusion that defines this country is the following, that we are a nation of laws and a nation of immigrants, and if individuals do not have a lawful basis to remain in the United States, we will remove them."
To watch Brennan's full interview with Mayorkas, click here.
