Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas says the Biden administration is “working around the clock” to try to “replace the cruelty” of the Trump administration when it comes to immigration.
Speaking to reporters at the White House on Monday, Mayorkas said the administration wants to implement an “orderly, humane, and safe immigration process.”
“It is hard, and it will take time, but rest assured, we will get it done,” he added.
“I think it is important to understand what we have inherited because it defines the situation as it currently stands. Entire systems are not re-built in a day or in a few weeks. To put it succinctly: the prior administration dismantled our nation’s immigration system in its entirety.”
Mayorkas went on to claim that there was not the “personnel, policies, procedure, or training” to implement humanitarian laws previously passed by Congress.
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IMMIGRATION: Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas says his department is trying to "replace the cruelty of the last administration," but that it is "hard and it will take time." pic.twitter.com/TztRdIuJAh
— Forbes (@Forbes) March 1, 2021
The Homeland Security secretary noted that the Trump administration froze funding to foreign aid programs in Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador.
Those programs were meant to help alleviate conditions that were leading people to migrant to the U.S. However, Trump put a freeze on the funding as he argued those countries were not doing enough to stem the tide of immigration.
Mayorkas also claimed that the Trump administration did little to protect border patrol agents and struck contracts “that were unlawful or against interests of the United States Department of Justice.”
“It takes time to rebuild an entire system and to process individuals at the border in a safe and just way. That is especially true when we’re in the midst of the pandemic and are obligated, of course, to adhere to the restrictions and procedures that have been promulgated by the CDC… It takes time to build out of the depths of cruelty that the administration before us established,” he added.
However, he said the Biden administration has begun to implement an “innovative way” to “address the needs” of asylum seekers who were required to wait in Mexico pending court hearings under Trump.
Additionally, officials have begun to “rebuild a process for young people to be able to access avenues of protection” without making the trek to the U.S. They have also started to “rebuild the program to reunify individuals with their families here in the United States.”
