Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told the Senate Judiciary Committee Tuesday that the American immigration system is "broken," while stating that not all of the 1.2 million illegal immigrants with final removal orders should be deported.
Committee ranking member Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, pointed to a Sept. 30 memo in which Mayorkas said "the fact that an individual is a removable non-citizens should not alone be the basis of an enforcement action against them." Grassley then asked if this still applied to those who already have final removal order against them.
"We cannot remove 1.2 million individuals," Mayorkas said, speaking to the impracticability of deporting so many people. He then called into question the validity of those orders.
"I would not necessarily accept the fact that all of them have received due process," he said.
Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas testifies during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Tuesday, Nov. 16, 2021, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
When asked if any of the 1.2 million people should be deported, Mayorkas said those "who pose a public safety threat, who pose a national security threat, who pose a border security threat," should be deported from the U.S.
Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., defended DHS’s use of "prosecutorial discretion" in deciding which deportation cases to pursue. Coons claimed that "an approach that effectively makes any undocumented immigrant a priority is actually making no one a priority."
Mayorkas agreed, arguing that discretion is warranted both because DHS has "limited resources," and also because it is "a matter of justice" not to prioritize those who have become "contributing members of our society."
Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., asked about those the administration was deporting under Title 42, under which the CDC calls for people from certain countries to be kept out of the U.S. out of concern of spreading coronavirus.
Booker asked if the administration might rescind that order, but Mayorkas said they do not plan to do so.
"Senator, the CDC conducted an independent study with respect to the Title 42 authority," he said. "It determined that the public health imperative required its continued use. The Delta variant was a very significant reason."
Mayorkas said that Democrats have been there, but he was unsure whether any of them were on the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Sen. Lindsey Graham grilled Mayorkas on the Biden administration’s withdrawal from Afghanistan, particularly the vetting of Afghan refugees. Graham asked how many people who the U.S. flew out of Afghanistan to come to the U.S. were vetted.
"It is our policy to vet and screen 100 percent of them," Mayorkas said.
"So 100 percent of those people that got on the plane were vetted. That's your testimony under oath?" Graham asked.
Mayorkas reiterated that "it is our policy to do so."
Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas, left, is greeted by Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., during a hearing by the committee, Tuesday, Nov. 16, 2021, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
"I don't care what your policy is," Graham fired back. "I'm asking how many people were vetted before they got on the plane."
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"I would posit, and I will confirm this, that well over 99 percent of them were fully screened and vetted before they boarded a flight," Mayorkas said, adding that anyone who was not was then vetted mid-flight. If any bad information came from that, he said, that person would then have to go through immigration proceedings.
Mayorkas then realized there was confusion, when Graham asked if it was true that 99% of the people getting on planes in Afghanistan were vetted. He said he had been referring to those who boarded planes in a different country that were U.S.-bound, and that he did not have knowledge of how many were vetted in Afghanistan.
A man prepares a stall of souvenirs and drinks to sell to people crossing into the United States at the San Ysidro Port of Entry, Monday, Nov. 8, 2021, in Tijuana, Mexico. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)
When speaking to Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, Mayorkas explained that the U.S. was working with outside countries that would accept refugees flown out of Afghanistan, and then the U.S. would transport them from those countries to the U.S.
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, focused on facilities where children have been detained in sub-par conditions, as migrants have flooded the border. The Republican pointed to the "cage"-like structures they are held in, and how Democratic leadership has not even visited the facilities, while showing photographs of a detention center in Donna, Texas.
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Mayorkas confirmed that neither President Biden nor Vice President Harris have been to the Donna facility Cruz referred to.
"Has any Democratic member of this committee given a damn enough to see the children being locked up by Joe Biden and Kamala Harris because of your failed immigration policies?" Cruz asked.
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