ABC host Martha Raddatz interviewed Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on the Biden administration’s efforts to address illegal immigration along the U.S. southern border. During the interview on ABC’s “This Week,” Mayorkas discussed President Joe Biden’s immigration executive order dated June 4, 2024. The order aims to halt new asylum requests if a seven-day daily average of 2,500 is reached, with the process resuming once the seven-day daily average falls to 1,500. Raddatz probed Mayorkas on the executive order, questioning the likelihood of a significant decrease in the number of crossings.
“President Biden said, ‘This ban will remain in place until the number of people trying to enter illegally is reduced to a level that our system can effectively manage,’ meaning, as we said, that average of 1,500 encounters or less over a period of 14 days. We said that has never happened. Do you really expect that to happen in the coming months or before Election Day?” Raddatz asked.
“Martha, it is. 1,500, an average of 1,500 individuals encountered over a seven-day consecutive period. We are driving to that and that’s not all we’re doing. We are also communicating throughout the region about the lawful pathways, we are driving people to use— ” Mayorkas said.
“But that’s something you’ve been doing all along; you’ve been trying to do that with people,” Raddatz jumped in.
Raddatz proceeded to air a 2021 interview featuring Mayorkas, in which the recently appointed DHS secretary asserted that the administration had devised a strategy to tackle the high volumes observed at the southern border.
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