Washington — Homeland Safety Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Sunday defended the Biden administration's immigration coverage following the deaths of 53 migrants who have been deserted at the back of a tractor trailer, saying U.S. immigration officers have repeatedly warned in opposition to touring to the southern border.
"We now have stated repeatedly and we proceed to warn folks to not take the damaging journey," Mayorkas stated in an interview with "Face the Nation." "We noticed so tragically in San Antonio, Texas, one of many doable tragic outcomes of that harmful journey and so many individuals do not even make it that far within the palms of exploitative smugglers. And we proceed to implement immigration regulation, as is our obligation."
The secretary stated migrants touring by way of central America to the U.S.-Mexico border usually obtain false info from smugglers that encourages them to aim the journey.
"They put their lives, their life financial savings, within the palms of those exploitative organizations, these legal organizations that don't care for his or her lives and solely search to make a revenue," he stated.
The deaths of the 53 migrants deserted within the tractor trailer within the sweltering San Antonio warmth seems to be the deadliest human smuggling case in fashionable U.S. historical past. Federal expenses have been filed in opposition to 4 folks allegedly linked to the deaths.
Mayorkas stated the Biden administration is working carefully with Mexico to interrupt up caravans of migrants that search to cross the border into the U.S., and stated addressing the excessive variety of migrant arrivals alongside the southern border is a "regional problem that requires a regional response."
"These are very subtle transnational legal organizations. They've developed during the last 30 years," he stated. "Within the 90s I prosecuted them and so they have been way more rudimentary. Now, they're very subtle, utilizing expertise and so they're terribly organized transnational legal enterprises."
However Mayorkas stated the U.S. has additionally ramped up its efforts by way of expertise and manpower, with authorities on the border saving greater than 10,000 folks this yr.
"Can a truck get by way of subtle means? Generally, sure," he stated. "However I've to say, we've got interdicted extra medicine on the ports of entry than ever earlier than. We have rescued extra migrants. We're seeing a problem that's actually regional, hemispheric in scope, and we're addressing it accordingly."
Whereas the Biden administration continues to defend its immigration coverage following file ranges of migrant apprehensions in Might and the lethal smuggling marketing campaign in Texas, it obtained a win from the Supreme Court docket on Thursday, when the justices cleared the way in which for the administration to unwind the Trump-era "Stay in Mexico" coverage.
Underneath this system enacted underneath former President Donald Trump, asylum seekers have been required to await their court docket proceedings exterior the U.S.
Mayorkas stated the division is "happy" with the choice and stated the "Stay in Mexico" program has "endemic flaws" and "unjustifiable human prices."