Department of Homeland Security chief Alejandro Mayorkas said Sunday that the surge in unaccompanied minors at the U.S.-Mexico border poses an unprecedented challenge because of actions taken under former President Donald Trump, as critics accuse the current White House of being unprepared for a humanitarian crisis at the nation’s doorstep.
„There was a system in place in both Republican and Democratic administrations that was torn down during the Trump administration, and that is why the challenge is more acute than it ever has been before,“ Mayorkas said on CNN’s „State of the Union.“
Mayorkas appeared on CNN, NBC and Fox on Sunday to defend the administration of President Joe Biden as it faces scrutiny over record numbers of children being held in jail-like Customs and Border Protection facilities, including thousands beyond the 72-hour legal limit.
The Biden administration reversed a Trump-era policy of expelling unaccompanied minors apprehended at the border, instead allowing them into the United States for processing. Republicans, Democrats and human rights activists have criticized the conditions under which children are being held.
Critics have said that the change in policy has encouraged unaccompanied children to make the perilous journey at a time when the U.S. does not have the infrastructure in place to properly care for them.
Mayorkas has previously said there is no crisis at the border, though he has acknowledged that the U.S. is on pace to encounter more individuals on the southwest border than anytime in the last two decades.
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