OPINION:
What perspective 16 months can bring.
After spending most of the Biden administration swearing (frequently under oath) that the U.S. southern border was secure, former Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas last week seemed to acknowledge the very opposite.
When asked during a May 12 interview at the Politico Security Summit whether acting sooner on border security could have prevented President Trump’s 2024 election, Mr. Mayorkas’ (grammatically nightmarish) response was, “I am not in a position to speculate, but I will tell you that I would be far more better rested and less punched.”
He did not seem terribly “punched” all those times he reassured us about the strength of southern border security, as record numbers of unvetted migrants poured into the United States.
He reassured us often:
- In 2021, during testimony before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, he called the southern border “closed.”
- In 2022, when asked by Rep. Michael Guest, Texas Republican, during testimony to the House Homeland Security Committee, “Are you testifying as you sit here today that the southwest border is secure?” he responded, “Yes, I am.”
- In 2023, again speaking to the House Homeland Security Committee, he said, “It is my testimony that the border is secure.”
- Also in 2023, he told the House Judiciary Committee that “Americans are safer today on the border … because of the Department of Homeland Security.”
- In 2024, once more before the House Homeland Security Committee, he called the border “as secure as it can be.”
These do not include the numerous TV news appearances Mr. Mayorkas made while in office, when he similarly attested to the border’s security.
It is infeasible that the homeland security secretary at the time truly believed the border to be secure, given that he was the head of federal immigration, and that he had implemented a mass catch-and-release approach at the border and ended the “Remain in Mexico” policy. That would mean Mr. Mayorkas deliberately misled Congress and the American people.
If, on the other hand, he was truly in the dark for four years, then he was not doing his job.
Which is worse?
On Mr. Mayorkas’ watch, more than 7 million illegals crossed our southwestern border, according to a 2024 Fox News analysis. That is more than the population of 36 states. American citizens, as we know, have died as a direct result of that invasion:
- The two suspects in the brutal rape and killing of 12-year-old Jocelyn Nungaray in Texas in 2024 are Venezuelan illegals who had reportedly been apprehended in the months leading up to the murder — and then released on another brilliant Biden-Mayorkas policy, “Alternatives to Detention.” Both men had GPS monitors.
- The illegal immigrant convicted of kidnapping, raping and murdering Rachel Morin, a Maryland mother of five, in 2023 had also entered the U.S. under Mr. Biden and been released just months before the killing.
- The illegal immigrant convicted earlier this year in the 2024 murder of Georgia nursing student Laken Riley came to the U.S. in 2022 and was paroled and released by the Biden administration.
Those are just the well-known cases. Enough is enough. We now know that Mr. Mayorkas did not believe everything was swell at the border, but that he told everyone otherwise.
President Trump said last summer that he would “look into” investigating Mr. Mayorkas for the havoc wreaked on our national security from 2021 through 2024. Now is the time for that investigation.
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