Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas says his mission in President Joe Biden’s administration is to dismantle the “cruelty” of former President Donald Trump’s administration.
Mayorkas made the comments during his first appearance at a White House Press briefing Monday. The Biden administration has come under fire for re-opening facilities used by the Trump administration to house children attempting to cross the border. Mayorkas argues the ongoing situation at the border is the fault of Trump’s “cruel” policies and will take time to rebuild “from scratch.” (RELATED: Jen Psaki Blows Off Criticism Of New Border Detention Centers For Children: ‘This Is Not Kids Being Kept In Cages’)
DHS Secretary Mayorkas says Trump administration “dismantled our nation’s immigration system in its entirety” and border policy & process must be rebuilt “virtually from scratch”
“It takes time to build out of the depths of cruelty that the administration before us established” pic.twitter.com/65rgeS1SUp
— CBS News (@CBSNews) March 1, 2021
Reporters pressed Mayorkas on how his department was handling the situation differently than Trump. (RELATED: ‘Dead On Arrival’: Sen. Cotton Says Biden Immigration Bill Too ‘Far To The Left,’ Won’t Become Law)
Mayorkas pushes back that the Biden Admin is handling unaccompanied migrant children like Trump
“We are not expelling young children. We are not apprehending a 9-yr-old child who’s come alone..whose loving parents sent that child alone, we’re not expelling that..child to Mexico”
— Rebecca Morin (@RebeccaMorin_) March 1, 2021
Biden signed a “family reunification” executive order at the end of January, creating a task force aimed at reconnecting familes who were separated while attempting to cross the border under Trump.
Mayorkas denied that there is an ongoing crisis at the border, arguing instead that the U.S. system was being “challenged.”