Mayorkas defends U.S. border strategy as migrant apprehensions reach 21-year high

Brownsville, Texas – Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Thursday vigorously defended the Biden administration’s strategy for dealing with Migration to the US-Mexico borderwhere charges against migrants and asylum seekers have reached levels not seen in over two decades.

Standing in front of Border Patrol vehicles in South Texas, Mayorkas said the government is expanding enforcement efforts to prevent economic migrants from entering the U.S. without permission, while expanding access to the U.S. asylum system for those fleeing violence.

“It is important that the intended migrants clearly understand that if they enter the United States illegally and have no basis for relief under our laws,” Mayorkas told reporters, admitting that the “unprecedented number” border crossings a “serious challenge”.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) made 212,000 arrests of migrants in July, a 21-year high, according to data released Thursday. More than 110,000 single adult migrants have been detained, most of whom have been deported to Mexico under a health agency first phoned under the Trump administration.

However, nearly 88% of the more than 83,000 immigrant parents and children detained as families in July were treated under US immigration law and allowed to seek asylum. US border officials also encountered an all-time high of 19,000 unaccompanied children, which the Biden administration has categorically shielded from the deportation policy known as Title 42.

“It’s a big number,” said Raul Ortiz, the new head of the US Border Protection Agency, CBS News in an interview on Tuesday. “I have a huge stream of migrants coming over here in South Texas. I did the same two or three hundred miles upstream in Del Rio, Texas. And then the same thing happened in Yuma, Arizona made us rethink the way we do business. “

Mayorkas attributed the surge in migration to violence, poverty and corruption in Central America, problems which he believes the Biden government is trying to alleviate through foreign aid.

“Young boys whose lives are threatened if they refuse to join a gang,” Mayorkas said, giving examples of potential migrants. “Young women at risk of rape on the way to school.”

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas attends a press conference with new Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz in Brownsville, Texas on August 12, 2021.

Nicole Sganga / CBS News

However, Mayorkas said the rise in concerns at the borders was also fueled by the resurgent US economy and the reversal of several Trump-era policies by the Biden administration, such as the practice of waiting asylum seekers in Mexico, often under dangerous and pathetic conditions on their US court hearings.

“Another reason is the end of the cruel policies of the past administration and the restoration of the rule of law in this country that Congress passed, including our asylum laws that provide humanitarian aid,” Mayorkas said.

In response to the surge in migrant encounters and concerns about the spread of the Delta variant of the coronavirus in US communities, the Biden The tightening of deportations and prosecutions by cross-border commuters, including families traveling with children.

“Now, of course, the delta variant makes the situation more difficult. Our capacities to test, isolate and quarantine the vulnerable population – those making legal asylum applications – are overwhelmed, “Mayorkas said, adding that DHS is” building new capacity. ” “To reduce health risks for migrants and neighboring communities along the southwest border.

The secretary acknowledged an “increase in the positivity rate among the migrant population” in recent weeks but noted that the positivity rate among the migrant community is equal to or lower than that of the border communities.

Since last month, some Central American families have been subjected to an expedited deportation known as “expedited deportation,” which enables US border officials to return migrants without having them appear before an immigration judge.

Last week, US authorities also began flying Central American migrants to southern Mexico under the Public Health Act of Title 42, which bans them from seeking asylum. Ortiz said “hundreds” of cross-border commuters have been accommodated on those return flights, including 250 migrants who left South Texas on Tuesday.

Mayorkas said the deportation flights were designed to curb repeated border crossings, which he said accounted for 27% of migrants’ concerns in July.

“[We are] certainly take the opportunity to use Title 42 to fly people back to Mexico. We repatriate people through the port of entry, but we certainly have the option of moving them further south, closer to their home country, “said Ortiz.” I think it’s an advantage for both them and us, because then we do not have the overcrowding that is found in some of our facilities and [it] made it possible for us to take some of that pressure off. “

The deportation flights and expedited family deportation program have alarmed advocates of asylum seekers, including the United Nations Refugee Agency, which said the practice of flying Central Americans to southern Mexico could strain “humanitarian response capacities” in the region.

“These expulsion flights of non-Mexicans deep into Mexico’s interior represent a worrying new dimension in the enforcement of the COVID-related public health ordinance known as Title 42,” the refugee agency said in a statement on Wednesday.

Kennji Kizuka, a researcher with Human Rights First, traveled to the Mexican border towns of Nuevo Laredo and Reynosa this week to interview asylum seekers affected by US policies. He said he spoke to migrants from Central America, Cuba, Haiti and other countries who were afraid of becoming victims in these Mexican cities.

“People are really confused and concerned that there will be no way to seek asylum at the ports of entry,” Kizuka told CBS News. “People are really scared. They’re scared even going outside and buying groceries at a local supermarket.”

Kizuka’s group has compiled a list of more than 3,200 reports of kidnappings, rape and assaults against migrants stranded in Mexico since January.

While the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) indefinitely extended Title 42 expulsions earlier this month, Biden government officials have conceded that this emergency agency will not always be available to them.

After six months of talks with the Biden administration, the American Civil Liberties Union revived its suit against Title 42 deportations last week. U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan, who previously ruled Title 42 won’t approve expulsions or override U.S. immigration law, could soon make a decision that could block the deportation of families with children.

“We are certainly concerned that at some point Title 42 will no longer be an opportunity for us to bring migrants back to Mexico or their home country,” said Ortiz. “So we always have to plan in an emergency.”

Mireya Villarreal contributed to this report.