Mayorkas on if Admin. Should Have Done Anything Different on Border: We Built 'Tremendously Successful' 'Architecture'

On Thursday’s broadcast of CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas responded to questions on whether the Biden administration should have done anything differently on the border by saying that “We have actually built an architecture now that is proving tremendously successful.” And Title 42 was in place until May 2023 “and then what the administration did was, correctly, push for more funding for the Department of Homeland Security, as well as the only enduring solution, which is legislation to fix a broken system.”

Co-host Joe Kernen asked, “[D]o you think that there should have been anything done differently over the past four years at the border? Do you think things could have — the election outcome could have been different? Anything that you would have done, as an individual, differently?”

Mayorkas answered that while he’s not going to speculate about the election, “the model that we have in place now [has] driven the number of encounters at the southern border down below 2019 levels, the last year before the pandemic struck our country and the world. We’re facing an unprecedented level of displacement of people around the world. We have actually built an architecture now that is proving tremendously successful.”

Kernen then stated, “I think some of the damage had already been done, Mr. Secretary, just with all due respect. Anything prior to that, like from the inception of the administration that could have been done differently? … It was something that a lot of people just — it became a major flashpoint in people’s thinking for the election.”

Mayorkas responded, “No question it did, Joe, and remember where we were, remember where we were up through May of 2023. Everyone across the aisle was really supporting the continuation of Title 42, the public health order, not an immigration measure, but a public health order, because we were still climbing out of the pandemic more rapidly than any country in the hemisphere, but nevertheless, still encountering it, so remember what the push was until May of 2023, and then what the administration did was, correctly, push for more funding for the Department of Homeland Security, as well as the only enduring solution, which is legislation to fix a broken system.”

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