Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas insisted Wednesday that conditions on the U.S. southern border have not deteriorated under President Biden, and shot down claims by the former Border Patrol chief who said things are worse than he’s seen in nearly 30 years of service.
The border with Mexico “is no less secure than it was previously,” Mr. Mayorkas told the House Homeland Security Committee.
He was challenged by Rodney Scott, who served as Border Patrol chief at the end of the Trump administration and into the Biden era, but who was ushered into retirement shortly after Mr. Biden took office.
“Contrary to the current rhetoric, this is not simply another illegal immigration surge. This is a national security threat,” Mr. Scott wrote in a letter to Congress.
In particular, he said, known or suspected terrorists are pouring across the international boundary at a rate never seen before. He urged lawmakers to demand the actual numbers from Mr. Mayorkas.
In hearings Tuesday and Wednesday, Mr. Mayorkas said he would get the number, but said it was secret and had to be delivered in a classified setting. More generally, he rejected Mr. Scott’s claims.
“I respectfully disagree with Mr. Scott’s assertion,” he told lawmakers.
The Biden administration shut down a series of Trump policies that had deeply cut into illegal immigration, and a record surge of illegal immigration has followed.
Mr. Mayorkas has acknowledged the current surge is “unprecedented.”