Mayorkas used the statement to blame the Trump administration for some of the Biden administration’s current immigration challenges. And Mayorkas made a striking outlook, saying that ‘we are on track to encounter more individuals on the southwestern border than we have had in the last 20 years.’
We examined six of Mayorkas’ claims. Here is an outline of fact checking.
Mayorkas wrote that under the Trump administration, there were no plans to protect our frontline personnel from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Facts first: “No plans” is not true. It is clear that during the Trump presidency, the department did take steps to protect frontline border workers from Covid-19.
In April 2020, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which is part of the Department of Homeland Security, issued a statement outlining various ways in which they try to protect staff from the virus, such as new cleanup guidelines, increased telecommunications and usage. of personal protective equipment.
In September 2020, the department’s inspector general reported that ports of entry and border patrol stations said in April and early May that they had taken several steps to limit the spread of Covid-19 – including the availability of masks, which increased cleaning frequency. , where possible working outdoors, conducting telephone briefings, asking people to stay in their vehicles during secondary border processing, and to conduct risk assessments of detainees to try to determine their potential exposure to the virus. The Inspector General stated that ‘facilities indicate their inability to distance themselves socially, and the risk of exposure to COVID-19 due to the close contact with their work,’ but that ‘the majority of the facilities declare that they are prepared to address COVID-19. “
Department spokeswoman Marsha Espinosa told CNN on Tuesday that Mayorkas was referring to DHS as a whole, not just to the border patrol facilities when he made the allegation about the absence of plans. But even though some parts of the department were hypothetically flawed in their planning, it is not true that there was ‘no period’.
Mayorkas could rather make a subjective argument that the Trump administration’s protection efforts were inadequate. The National Treasury Employees’ Union, which represents thousands of Customs and Border Protection employees, called for various security improvements in the spring and summer of 2020, including regular testing, contact detection, regular cleaning and better protection equipment. In 2021, the union criticized the department’s sluggish early efforts to get employees vaccinated.
As of Sunday, Customs and Border Protection reported that 8,131 cases of Covid-19 and 28 deaths among its 60,000 employees had been confirmed.
Migration numbers in historical context
Mayorkas wrote: “We are on the verge of encountering more individuals on the southwestern border than we have had in the last 20 years.”
Facts first: This can quite possibly be accurate – although we need to be careful with ‘pace’-based projections, as changes in political, economic and even weather conditions can change the trend of immigration in the middle of the year. But experts believe that Mayorkas has left out some important contexts about how current figures differ from previous figures.
Let’s look at the numbers first. In the first five months of the 2021 financial year, through February, Customs and Border Protection reported 396,958 “encounters” with migrants at the southwestern land border. So far February, this financial year has had a slightly lower average per month than the full 2019 financial year. As the number of meetings increased each month of the 2021 financial year, and as the number increased from 78,442 in January to 100,441 in February, an average of five months does not represent the current situation. Mayorkas has access to internal data that CNN does not have, including March figures, and his projection seems reasonable.
Nevertheless, he left out some relevant facts. Sarah Pierce, a policy analyst at the Migration Policy Institute think tank, said that due to the “title 42” policy of the pandemic era to expel people who cross the border without permission, under former President Donald Trump adopted and until so far largely preserved. by Biden, “Repetition is higher than it has been in years – it’s easier than ever for rejected migrants to turn around and try again. That high degree of repetition makes the numbers look higher than they actually are.”
“Unfortunately, the government has not updated the recurrence rate for a while, so we do not know how artificial the ‘encounters’ numbers are,” Pierce said (a customs and border protection official said during a March 10 briefing) reporters confirm that there are ‘higher than usual recurrence rates due to Covid protocols.’)
Erica Schommer, clinical professor of law at the St. Mary’s University in San Antonio, said the comparison of today’s raw figures 20 years ago could be ‘misleading’, because although people at the time tended to cross the border, they tried not to be noticed by authorities. . , today “many children and families and even a few single adults Border Patrol essentially give themselves” to start the asylum claim process.
Similarly, Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, policy adviser at the American Immigration Council, an organization for the promotion of immigration, said “there are many nuances missing” in Mayorkas’ claim. He said that since the border patrol agents are evaded today by a much smaller percentage of migrants than 20 years ago, the actual total number of migrants crossing the border today will be ‘MUCH lower’ than the total 20 years ago, even if is the recorded number of “encounters”, which does not include successful
evasions, eventually reached the same heights.
When the current increase began
Mayorkas wanted to make it clear that the increase in migratory traffic on the southwestern border did not begin under the Biden government. He writes: “Since April 2020, the number of encounters at the southwestern border has gradually increased.”
Facts first: It is true. Customs and border protection statistics show that the number of “encounters” at the southwestern land border has increased every month since April 2020, when the number in the midst of the pandemic dropped to 17,106. That number was 74,018 in December, Trump’s last full month in office, and 100,441 in February. It was during the 2019 financial year last in a month more than 100,000. You can look at government data and maps here.
The burden on the border patrol
Mayorkas wrote: ‘The eviction of single adults does not pose an operational challenge to the border patrol due to the rapid and minimal processing burden of their eviction.’
Facts first: What constitutes an ‘operational challenge’ is a matter of opinion, but Mayorkas’ opinion is disputed. Mark Morgan, head of the border patrol under President Barack Obama, who then served under Trump as acting leader of customs and border protection and of immigration and customs enforcement, said it was “basic math” that the current number of single adults is an operational challenge is. “One might ask whether Mayorkas led the men and women of the Border Patrol this line before saying it in public, because if he had done so, he would have been embarrassed to make such an allegation,” he said. Morgan said. wrote in an article Tuesday on the website of the Conservative Heritage Foundation, where he is now a visiting fellow.
Reichlin-Melnick, a critic of both the Title 42 pandemic eviction policy and of
Morgan self, said he also disputed Mayorkas’ claim. He said that although the rapid eviction of single adults under Title 42 takes less time than normal arrests, ‘the fact is that since April 2020 they have had to spend more and more time arresting more and more single adults,’ which distracts from other aspects of border processing. ”
Expulsion of migrating families
Mayorkas wrote: “We evict most single adults and families.”
Facts first: This was true in February when you combined single adults and people who traveled as part of a family unit into one large statistical group. However, this was not true for family migrants on their own.
Published data on customs and border protection show that 7,915 migrants who were part of a ‘family unit’ on the south-western border in February were suspended under the heading 42 pandemic eviction policy – about 41% of the 19,246 members of the family unit in “meetings” that month.
If you combine single adults with people who were part of a family unit, the claim of Mayorkas is clearly accurate. Of the 90,844 single adults and family members encountered in February, 72,023 of them, about 79%, were suspended under title 42.
Trump and the asylum system
Mayorkas wrote: “The previous government completely dismantled the asylum system. The system was scrapped, facilities were closed and they cruelly expelled young children into the hands of traders.”
Facts first: A literal reader may find the phrase ‘completely broken down’ – an asylum system still exists under Trump, of course – but we say Mayorkas’ assertion is fair enough, and ‘the system is messed up’ is a reasonable assessment. Trump has made dramatic, unprecedented changes to the asylum system, both to prevent asylum seekers from to stay in the US while their claims worked through the legal process and made it more difficult for asylum claims to pass.
Reichlin-Melnick and Schommer told CNN that they agree with Mayorkas’ claim.
Mayorkas’ allegation about children and traffickers is also factually fair, though we will not judge how “cruel” the Trump administration was or not.
Under the title 42 expulsion policy, the Trump administration has rejected thousands of unaccompanied children who have crossed the Mexican border. (The Biden government has so far retained most of the Trump-era title 42 policy, but released unaccompanied children from the evictions.) Human rights advocates and journalists have also reported that traffickers and other criminals seek asylum, including children, who were deported from the U.S. under the Trump administration’s “Remain in Mexico” program, which went into effect in 2019.
We are not sure what Mayorkas was referring to when he wrote under Trump that ‘facilities are closed’. The department did not respond to our request for clarification.
