Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas is facing questions about why the Biden administration appears to have been unprepared for the current surge in migration.
ABC’s Martha Raddatz on Sunday read a tweet from Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) who surveyed facilities where migrant children are being held until they can be processed and released to sponsors.
Murphy tweeted about a 13 year old child who “sobbbed uncontrollably explaining thru a translator how terrified she was, having been separated from her grandmother and without her parents.”
Just left the border processing facility. 100s of kids packed into big open rooms. In a corner, I fought back tears as a 13 yr old girl sobbbed uncontrollably explaining thru a translator how terrified she was, having been separated from her grandmother and without her parents.
— Chris Murphy 🟧 (@ChrisMurphyCT) March 19, 2021
Raddatz noted that Biden administration officials maintain that they have a plan to address the crisis at the border. However, she asked Mayorkas, “You knew there was a pandemic before. HHS had failed to do this before as well, under Obama, under President Trump. So how do you speed this up and how did this happen?”
“Martha, it takes time,” Mayorkas responded. “When I say it takes time, I mean it because we’re dealing with a dismantled system.”
He continued, “And we did not have the ordinary, safe and just transition, from one administration to another.”
Still, he noted that the government is working to construct new shelters and has enlisted the Federal Emergency Management Administration’s services in that endeavor.
Watch the video below:
DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas addresses the surge of migrants at the border: "When I say it takes time, I mean it. Because we are dealing with a dismantled system." https://t.co/COj3g4MhLm pic.twitter.com/cMAE5SO8hp
— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) March 21, 2021
Additionally, he responded to her question about why they were not better prepared for the migrant surge, “Plans aren’t made at 20,000 feet. Plans are contracts, personnel, policies, training, procedures. All of the elements of operations that were entirely dismantled.”
While Republicans have seized on the situation to attack the Biden administration, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) claimed, “The Biden administration has this under control. It has changed, and it will take some time, but it is values-based, humanitarian in its aspects, pragmatic with a plan to get things done.”
“Not just a diversionary tactic on the part of the Republicans because they are bankrupt of ideas on how to improve the lives of the American people. They run to the border,” she added.