Alejandro Mayorkas told Congress that the Department of Homeland Security will maintain the security of the Southern Border on the same day that Border Patrol announced the apprehension of hundreds of migrants seeking to illegally enter the country.
United States Customs and Border Patrol announced on April 27 that the agency in the Rio Grande Valley sector of the southern border had rescued three human smuggling events and apprehended 322 people seeking to illegally enter America.
In one of these events, agents detained a truck that was towing a flatbed trailer with a large metal-sided box at the Falfurrias Border Patrol Checkpoint on April 26.
“Agents observed a vent, approximately 16 inches by 6 inches on one of the boxes and removed the vent to reveal 40 migrants in a seated position trapped inside,” CBP said in a press release. “The metal sided box had to be broken apart by unscrewing multiple bolts using a power tool found in the truck. The box had no other opening or means of escape for the occupants.”
All detained migrants were processed, the agency reported.
Mayorkas appeared before the House Appropriations Committee on April 27 and said the federal government had “effectively managed” the border crisis.
"We inherited a broken and dismantled system that is already under strain … only Congress can fix this," said Mayorkas during his testimony. "Yet, we have effectively managed an unprecedented number of non-citizens seeking to enter the United States."
The DHS estimated border encounters will soon reach 18,000 per day. These estimates come as the Biden administration fights to repeal Title 42, a border security measure enacted under President Donald Trump that increased restrictions on immigrants’ entry into the United States.
The Biden administration is currently preparing for the monthly number of illegal immigrants at the border to surpass 500,000 if the policy is ended, per The Washington Times.
Rep. John Katko of New York, who serves on the House Homeland Security Committee, asked Mayorkas, “Do you believe front-line agents and officers?”
“There’s not a single person on the border today that will tell you once Title 42 is lifted they won’t lose operational control,” Katko added.
“We will not lose operational control of the border,” Mayorkas said in response.
Texas Representative Michael T. McCaul expressed his dissatisfaction with Mayorkas.
“I have never seen the border more broken. It is not under operational control. It is out of control,” McCaul said.
