For more than an hour during his meeting with USA TODAY’s Editorial Board, Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas answered questions about the Department of Homeland Security, immigration, border security, Haitian migrants, Afghan refugees, travel restrictions, domestic terrorism and even Facebook.
Deputy managing editor Cristina Silva, who oversees immigration coverage at USA TODAY, asked him about children who were separated from their families during the Trump administration, some of whom have yet to be reunited, and what role the government should play in making those families whole.
His expression softened. His voice trembled a bit as he described talking recently with a mother reunited with her teenage daughter.
“There’s a distance between the mother and the daughter that, that remains, and it’s heartbreaking,” he said. “You know, making whole … I feel like the government has to be made whole after what it’s done. And I think that we, for the families, have to be restorative.”
As Mayorkas was giving is interview, a separate press conference was being led by Governor Greg Abbott. He came to represent and speak out about recent border control issues and how it’s becoming a crisis.
With an array of military vehicles in the background, Gov. Greg Abbott played host to nine of his fellow Republican state chief executives under the blazing South Texas sun Wednesday to again call attention to what he says is an ongoing immigration crisis.
Abbott used the event, which drew some 50 media outlets from around the country, to escalate what has already been a withering barrage of criticism of President Joe Biden and his administration for rolling back many of the immigration policies of the Donald Trump years.
“President Joe Biden has caused a humanitarian crisis and chaos on our border,” Abbott said as the other nine governors looked on.
Much of the illicitly produced opioid narcotic is smuggled across the southern border and finds its way to cities and towns in virtually every state, they said.
Abbott also used the event, as he has at numerous recent news conferences along the border and in cities across Texas, to further burnish his credentials as an immigration hardliner as he heads into the 2022 election cycle where he faces GOP challengers to his right.
The other governors in attendance were Doug Ducey of Arizona, Brian Kemp of Georgia, Brad Little of Idaho, Kim Reynolds of Iowa, Greg Gianforte of Montana, Pete Ricketts of Nebraska, Mike DeWine of Ohio, Kevin Stitt of Oklahoma, and Mark Gordon of Wyoming.
The Democratic National Committee called the South Texas event a politically motivated distraction, saying they “stood idly by as Donald Trump spent four years destroying our immigration system.”
The governors, however, said they are prepared to offer solutions. However, many of them involve reinstating now-discarded Trump policies, including resuming construction of the border wall.
Abbott also touted his own efforts, including the Legislature’s appropriation this year of more than $2 billion to boost state law enforcement presence in South Texas and to build sections of fencing near the Rio Grande.
Ducey, of Arizona, was the only governor aside from Abbott to preside over a border state. He echoed his Texas counterpart’s assessment.
“The border situation is just as out of control in the state of Arizona,” Ducey said.
He stated there were many increases in migrant apprehensions in Arizona this year.
“And it’s not just the people that are crossing the border. It’s the lethal drugs,” Ducey said.
Ducey was not sparing in his criticism of the Biden administration.
“There are people to blame for making America a more dangerous place: President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and (Homeland Security) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas,” Ducey said. “It’s no secret anymore. They have created this crisis.”
Meanwhile, Mayorkas, told the USA TODAY editorial board Tuesday the administration has learned much from the recent influx of Haitian migrants into Del Rio last month and will be prepared amid reports that another group might be on its way.
“It was most certainly a challenge that we had not encountered previously,” Mayorkas said. “And what we have done now, is we have developed plans that should something like that occur again, we’re ready for it.”
DPS Director Steve McCraw later told reporters his officers are taking a proactive approach to border security and are not dependent on the federal government.
“We don’t need their permission to protect Texas,” he said.
