The number of migrants seeking to cross the southern US border has been “markedly down” despite an expected surge following the expiration of pandemic-era border restrictions, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said.
Speaking on CNN’s State of the Union, Mayorkas said over the past two days, the US Border Patrol “has experienced a 50% drop in the number of encounters versus what we were experiencing earlier in the week,” before the border limits, known as Title 42, were lifted.
While Mayorkas said it was too soon to say whether the surge has peaked, border agents reported about 6,300 encounters on Friday and 4,200 on Saturday. Authorities said early last week the number stood at an all-time high of 10,000 daily.
An unprecedented surge of migrants crossing the US southern border over recent months has been a political albatross for President Joe Biden, with Republicans and some fellow Democrats questioning if the White House was prepared to handle the influx.
Republicans have repeatedly said that the sunsetting of Title 42, a public health measure that restricted migrants during the heights of the Covid-19 pandemic, would lead to a fresh surge in attempted crossings. Mayorkas told ABC’s This Week that he believes the dropping numbers show the administration’s policies are working.
Read More: How End of Title 42 Complicates Biden’s Border Policy: QuickTake
“We have been preparing for this transition for months and months, and we’ve been executing on our plan accordingly,” Mayorkas said on ABC. “Our plan is very straightforward, there is a safe, lawful and orderly way to reach the United States.”
As Title 42 expired, 1,000 more asylum officers were sent to Border Patrol facilities to process asylum requests along with 1,500 US military personnel to help with logistical tasks. Roughly 1,400 medical staff and 1,100 processing coordinators were also sent to the southwest border.
House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mark Green, a Tennessee Republican, took issue with Mayorkas’s account of border crossings.
He told CNN’s State of the Union that border crossings last week were at a record high.
“Yes, there was some anticipation, so people started coming across at higher numbers, in fact record breaking-numbers in the first part of the week. But in the latter part of the week a judge ruled they can’t do their plan of just releasing without a court date,” he said.
A federal judge in Florida on Thursday temporarily blocked the Biden administration from allowing certain migrants to enter the US for a limited time while they await immigration proceedings, derailing one of the administration’s tactics to alleviate overcrowding in border facilities.
“The problem is the way Mayorkas and those guys have done it, with catch and release and you know, not deporting people, and all the things they’ve done to encourage people to come into the country is basically making the problem of migration worse,” he said.
--With assistance from Tony Capaccio.