On Wednesday’s broadcast of “CNN News Central,” Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas responded to a question on how he responds to claims that “illegal immigration and migrant crime is one of the greatest threats to the country today” by saying that such a claim is “false.”
Co-host Kate Bolduan asked, “The threats, the threat landscape has, of course, evolved over the 23 years and the intelligence lapse and gaps that led up to 9/11, how has it evolved? What is the greatest threat to the American homeland today?”
Mayorkas responded, “Kate, the foreign terrorist threat that struck our country so tragically 23 years ago persists. It is still very much something that we have to address. But the threat has evolved so that we are also concerned about individuals already here in the United States radicalized to violence, radicalized to violence by false narratives, ideologies of hate, personal grievances, and other forms of narratives that are propagated on social media.”
After the discussion turned to the border, Mayorkas said, “We have driven the number of encounters at the southern border down by more than 50%. That is through executive action. But the enduring solution to what everyone believes is a broken system is for Congress to act, and it has failed to do so because some interfered with a Senate bipartisan piece of legislation that was a remarkable compromise and would have made a remarkable difference in the security of our border. That being said, crime is down in this country, and the demonization of migrants is not consistent with our country’s values.”
Bolduan then asked, “When you hear a charge that illegal immigration and migrant crime is one of the greatest threats to the country today, you say what?”
Mayorkas answered, “That it’s false.”
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