Mayorkas Admits Some Migrants ‘Try To Game’ The Asylum System

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas admitted that some migrants try to take advantage of the U.S. asylum system.

Mayorkas acknowledged during an interview with CBS News that there are migrants who are out to “game” the asylum system. He also argued that a border bill killed by House Republicans would have helped the situation by “ us with more tools to deal with those individuals who seek to game the system” and “drive traffic to our ports of entry in an orderly way.”

“The reality is that some people do indeed try to game the system,” Mayorkas told CBS News on May 23. “That does not speak to everyone whom we encounter, but there is an element of it, and we deal with it accordingly.”

Mayorkas has argued for more resources to speed up asylum claims and has been reluctant in the past to describe the situation at the U.S.-Mexico border as a “crisis.”

The admission comes as the southern border crisis continues and the issue remains a top concern for voters.

Border Patrol encountered 128,884 migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border in April, according to the latest Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data. While these numbers represent a drop compared to the 183,921 encounters seen in April 2023, the total encounters under the Biden administration remain high.