The next is a transcript of an interview with Homeland Safety Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” that aired on Oct. 13, 2024.
MARGARET BRENNAN: And we start this morning with Homeland Safety Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, Welcome again to Face The Nation.
SECRETARY ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS: Good morning, Margaret. Thanks for having me.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Mr. Secretary, you oversee FEMA. There may be nonetheless seven weeks left in hurricane season. FEMA’s Director says they’ve already used practically half of the 20 billion in catastrophe reduction Congress allotted to them, however the Speaker of the Home says FEMA has loads of sources, they’ve been sluggish to reply and that FEMA hasn’t really distributed the cash. Are you able to clear that up?
SECRETARY MAYORKAS: Margaret, FEMA has the cash to handle the quick wants of people impacted by Hurricanes Helene and Milton, however we’d like Congress to behave swiftly to fund FEMA and particularly its Catastrophe Aid Fund, as a result of hurricane season just isn’t over, and likewise seasons are much less and fewer necessary now, given the consequences of local weather change and the rising gravity and frequency of utmost climate occasions. And I ought to say, FEMA has not been sluggish in any respect. It already has distributed greater than $470 million in reduction to people impacted by Hurricane Helene. I take nice pleasure, and this nation ought to take nice pleasure, within the extraordinary work of our FEMA personnel and all first responders.
MARGARET BRENNAN: So that is obligated versus distributed. That is the place you two are type of disagreeing with one another, nevertheless it appears. However earlier than Hurricane Milton hit, you stated October 2, ‘we would not have the funds,’ FEMA does not have the funds, ‘to make it by the season and what’s imminent.’ So if one other hurricane hits earlier than the election, are there funds to take care of that type of emergency state of affairs?
SECRETARY MAYORKAS: We are going to handle the quick impacts. However keep in mind, quick impacts. Communicate of quick wants, meals, potable water and the like. But additionally we’ve to make sure that people can recuperate from these excessive disasters, akin to rebuilding their properties, repairing harm and the like. And so we’d like Congress to behave swiftly to fund what ought to be a nonpartisan, apolitical phenomenon, and that’s offering reduction to all people with respect to the impacts of those excessive climate occasions
MARGARET BRENNAN: So quick versus rebuilding, so you may wait till after the election. Have you learnt how a lot you will want?
SECRETARY MAYORKAS: We do not. We do not know, however we’re nonetheless, for instance, assessing the harm from Hurricane Milton, which is of historic energy. And it additionally led to roughly 27 totally different tornadoes. So we do not know the influence. We do not know what’s coming tomorrow, whether or not it is one other hurricane, a twister, a hearth, an earthquake. Now we have to be prepared, and it’s not good authorities to be depending on a each day existence, versus applicable planning.
MARGARET BRENNAN: We have seen some harmful misinformation being amplified on-line. Florida’s governor Ron DeSantis hit again laborious at a few of these claims that if you happen to received assist from the federal authorities, someway they’d seize your property in his state. FEMA has been attempting to counteract a few of these lies as effectively. Are you involved once you see this and the way widespread it’s that it is a preview of what is to return with the upcoming US election as effectively? makes an attempt to control folks?
SECRETARY MAYORKAS: Extremely involved. And the misinformation, I ought to say it is disinformation, false data intentionally unfold to influence folks’s conduct and perceptions, this can be very pernicious. Now we have people in want of help, who’re entitled to help, who aren’t looking for it due to the false data.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Who’s driving it?
SECRETARY MAYORKAS: Effectively, I will inform you what we’d like. We’d like people, elected officers, individuals who have the platform to essentially debunk this false data. And we’re not seeing sufficient of that, and I discover that to be extremely irresponsible and irresponsible to the people who find themselves survivors of those excessive climate occasions.
MARGARET BRENNAN: You could have a giant portfolio at Homeland Safety. And naturally, the US border is a part of that. Border crossings are actually at a low for the Biden presidency. However our CBS polling exhibits 65% of Trump voters consider the Biden administration is attempting to deliberately improve the variety of migrants on the border. And among the many individuals who do consider that, three quarters of them say it is as a result of the administration needs them to vote, and the Speaker of the Home simply instructed us that he thinks noncitizens are going to vote, despite the fact that that is already unlawful beneath established legislation. What mechanisms are you able to inform the general public about that exist to forestall this from taking place?
SECRETARY MAYORKAS: So what a, what a robust instance of disinformation. Info. There isn’t a info underlying these assertions. They’re extraordinarily damaging. It causes folks to lose confidence within the integrity of the election system, and we’d like folks in positions of authority to really talk correct data to the voting public. We’re- the numbers that we’re experiencing now on the border are literally decrease than they had been right now of yr in 2019. And so it isn’t simply during the last three years, however effectively earlier than them, within the pre-Covid occasions. And the notion, the notion, that we in legislation enforcement have sought the, to deliberately permit people to cross the border illegally for the aim of voting is preposterous, and everybody ought to condemn that rhetoric, everybody, no matter social gathering affiliation.
MARGARET BRENNAN: So on the problem of the actions you’ve got taken to deliver these border crossings down, this was President Biden’s presidential energy. He is basically disqualifying most of those that are coming into illegally from with the ability to get asylum. This was meant to be a short lived coverage change, so that you took this with out having to go to Congress and alter the legislation. Briefly.
SECRETARY MAYORKAS: We took it after Congress didn’t take the enduring step-
MARGARET BRENNAN: Proper–
SECRETARY MAYORKAS: Of laws, which was bipartisan in nature.
MARGARET BRENNAN: However simply in doing that, by doing this by presidential energy, aren’t you basically doing what Republicans stated was attainable all through, which was with the stroke of a pen, President Biden may cease all of this?
SECRETARY MAYORKAS: No, and keep in mind the place we had been. We had been implementing Title 42, the general public well being authority, till Could of final yr. We then sought from Congress further funding, further border patrol brokers, further Homeland Safety Investigations personnel. They didn’t fund the Division of Homeland Safety to reinforce our border safety. We sought that funding once more. Once more rejected. A bipartisan group of senators really offered a, essentially the most dramatic change in laws in over 20 years. Congress was poised to move it, after which politics received in the way in which. Some folks would favor the issue to persist than ship an answer for the American folks. The President acted, and keep in mind, we needed to construct the capability to implement so efficiently the President’s proclamation, and that’s certainly what we’ve been doing month after month
MARGARET BRENNAN: So, however on this challenge of who’s within the nation I do know, virtually talking, it is extremely tough to deport, for instance, to the nation of Venezuela. Donald Trump, on the marketing campaign path, talks rather a lot a few jail gang from that nation, and he argues there’s already legal guidelines on the books that will permit for the Biden administration to dismantle felony networks. He says he’d do it. Are there these legal guidelines, you already know? Are you doing all the pieces you possibly can to fight this transnational felony group?
SECRETARY MAYORKAS: Sure we’re, and I feel you are talking of Tren de Aragua, TDA. Margaret, I used to be a prosecutor for 12 years. We had felony gangs to battle again then. We’re certainly doing all the pieces we are able to to dismantle felony gangs and transnational felony organizations, and fairly frankly, we have devoted an unprecedented degree of sources and personnel and focus to this effort. This isn’t a brand new phenomenon, however we’re bringing new instruments, new capabilities and new sources to the combat.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Are you able to shortly clarify what the standing is with this arrest this previous week, or this prosecution we discovered of this previous week, of this Afghan nationwide who was apparently planning an election day terrorist assault on behalf of ISIS? He was on this nation, he had immigration standing. Was he radicalized earlier than he got here to america?
SECRETARY MAYORKAS: So Margaret, it’s an ongoing prosecution, so I will not communicate of the info. However the viewing public is getting an thought of the breadth and variety of the missions that we within the Division of Homeland Safety–
MARGARET BRENNAN: But it surely will get to the problem of vetting versus whether or not he was radicalized right here.
SECRETARY MAYORKAS: Bear in mind the person got here in by parol, an Afghan nationwide. And after we vet and we accomplish that intensively, after we vet a person, it is a cut-off date screening and vetting course of. If we receive data subsequently that implies the person could possibly be of hazard, we take applicable legislation enforcement motion. That’s precisely what we did on this case,
MARGARET BRENNAN: Understood. Secretary Mayorkas, thanks to your time in the present day.
SECRETARY MAYORKAS: Thanks, Margaret.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Face the Nation might be again in a minute. Stick with us.
