Mayorkas defends Biden’s asylum action from critics on both sides of the aisle while calling on Congress to do more

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Sunday pushed back on criticism of President Joe Biden’s new executive action restricting asylum while calling on Congress to take action on the border.

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Sunday pushed back on criticism of President Joe Biden’s new executive action restricting asylum while calling on Congress to take action on the border. “It’s early, the signs are positive. Our personnel have done an extraordinary job in implementing a very big shift in how we operate on the southern border,” Mayorkas said on ABC’s “This Week,” noting that implementation of the new policy — announced last Tuesday — has only just begun. The executive action — which bars migrants crossing the border illegally from seeking asylum, with some limited exceptions, once an average daily threshold is met — marked the administration’s most dramatic move on the US southern border, which former President Donald Trump has made a central focus of his 2024 campaign. But the attacks on the new policy from both Republicans and progressive Democrats have underscored the precarious position Biden is in on immigration ahead of the November election. Republican Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas, for example, accused Biden of “gaslighting” Americans on Sunday. “People need to understand that what Biden has done, he’s not doing anything to actually secure the border, in fact it’s the opposite,” Abbott said on Fox’s “Sunday Morning Futures” “When he stops the asylum process, there’s nothing that Biden is doing that actually is preventing anybody else from crossing the border. There’s no type of enforcement mechanism in place.” While the number of encounters between ports of entry is still high, it’s too early to know the policy’s impact. Still, Mayorkas insisted the restrictions on asylum would reduce the number of people who try to cross the border.