Since Team Biden released a new immigration policy, several networks have unleashed harsh questioning on Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas -- from the Left!
Over the past several days, CNN and Fox viewers have been treated to the kind of opposite coverage of the border crisis that one would expect as CNN has voiced concerns by Democrats that not enough illegal immigrants will be able to enter the country while Fox has done a better job of actually informing their viewers of the issues.
Just like NPR's Steve Inskeep on Friday, CNN This Morning co-host Poppy Harlow came at Mayorkas on Friday from the far left over the Biden administration's plans to apply Title 42 to more countries, making it easier to expel illegal border crossers from Cuba, Haiti and Nicaragua.
After Mayorkas explained that the Biden administration is trying to get asylum seekers to apply for entry to the U.S. legally instead of being exploited by smugglers, Harlow cited Democrats labeling such an approach as "inhumane" as the CNN anchor followed up:
...you've got a lot of Democrats, including four Democratic Senators, who say that they are disappointed in this plan. They call it an "inhumane expansion" of the Trump-era Title 42, and they say it will, quote, "further enrich" smuggling networks. How do you know it won't?
After Mayorkas bristled at Harlow's suggestion that Biden would be treating illegal immigrants similarly to the Trump administration, the CNN host fretted that the administration will not be hospitable enough to potential asylum seekers and played a clip of her colleague Jake Tapper speaking with Mayorkas in 2021: "Do you think that asylum seekers who are fleeing violence -- fleeing political instability -- fleeing natural disasters -- are they welcome in the United States?"
As if Biden were planning to deny rights to asylum seekers, Harlow followed up: "And U.S. law -- U.S. Code -- 8 U.S. Code 1151 -- says clearly that anyone that sets foot in this country can seek asylum. Has that changed?"
CNN correspondent Rosa Flores was then allowed to ask her own question, and she threw a hardball, that women who've been expelled were then kidnapped or raped, and that's not uncommon: "I've interviewed women in Mexico who really just wanted to seek asylum in the United States, but they were expelled under Title 42 back to Mexico, and, once there, after that, they were kidnapped -- they were raped -- and these are not isolated cases, as you know."
By contrast, on Sunday's Fox News Live, Fox contributor and former ICE acting director Tom Homan was allowed to question the legality of allowing 30,000 additional asylum seekers into the country. He also reiterated a critical point that is never mentioned on the more liberal networks, that about 90 percent of illegal immigrants who seek asylum lose their cases, but then are mostly not forced to leave the country.
It has also been recently recounted on Fox that polling found that 83 percent of Americans are not aware of how high the number of illegal immigrants has increased in the past couple of years, and 67 percent would support more action if they liberal media actually informed them of the problem.
CNN's interview with the Homeland Security secretary was sponsored in part by Mypurmist. Their contact information is linked.
Transcripts follow:
CNN This Morning
January 6, 2023
7:27 a.m. Eastern
POPPY HARLOW: So the Biden administration says that it wants to end Title 42, but then, just yesterday, the administration does this and effectively expands the program. How do you reconcile the two? Do you want to end it or keep using it and expand it?
(ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS, HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY)
And I hear you about the federal judge in Louisiana. That was in May of last year, but in November after that, the federal judge in D.C. ordered the end of it, and now it's up in the hands of the Supreme Court. You talked about smugglers and this policy, but isn't that a hope and not a guarantee? Because you've got a lot of Democrats, including four Democratic Senators, who say that they are disappointed in this plan. They call it an "inhuman expansion" of the Trump-era Title 42, and they say it will, quote, "further enrich" smuggling networks. How do you know it won't?
(MAYORKAS)
But you would concede this is an expansion of the Trump-era plan to deal with the crisis at the border because you're now applying it to three more countries -- Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua?
(MAYORKAS)
I was specifically talking -- as you know, Secretary -- about Title 42, not the other ways in which the past administration dealt with immigration and migrants at the border. But I do want to ask you because you brought up asylum and how your administration is handling this so differently for asylum seekers. The Department of Homeland Security this week is now proposing a new rule that would place additional restrictions on migrants seeking asylum in the United States. But this is what you told my colleague, Jake Tapper, in September 2021.
JAKE TAPPER (from September 26, 2021): Do you think that asylum seekers who are fleeing violence -- fleeing political instability -- fleeing natural disasters -- are they welcome in the United States?
MAYORKAS: They most certainly are.
HARLOW (live): And U.S. law -- U.S. Code -- 8 U.S. Code 1151 -- says clearly that anyone that sets foot in this country can seek asylum. Has that changed?
(MAYORKAS)
So let's talk about those people because, yes, you've been to the border so many times -- and so has our colleague, Rosa Flores, who our viewers just heard from. She has covered this extensively. Last month, she spoke with a migrant family about the terrors of what they're experiencing. This is what they said to her.
ROSA FLORES (from December 27, 2022): She says that she thought that her daughter was going to die overnight because it was so cold. They had just crossed the river. They were wet. Desperate, Mata says she started knocking on doors asking for help. She says that she prayed to God, that she hugged her daughter and tried to warm her with her own body heat as much as she could to try to save her daughter's life.
HARLOW (live): So, Mr. Secretary, Rosa is still with us, and, Rosa, I want you to have a chance to ask the Secretary a question since you're the one who's there.
FLORES: Yeah, and thank you so much, Mr. Secretary, for your time. I really want to focus on the human impact because I'm the one who interviews these people face to face, and I can tell you that I've interviewed women in Mexico who really just wanted to seek asylum in the United States, but they were expelled under Title 42 back to Mexico, and, once there, after that, they were kidnapped -- they were raped -- and these are not isolated cases, as you know. There are many cases -- thousands of cases of violent acts against migrants who have been expelled under Title 42 since President Biden took office. And my question to you is: What is the U.S. government doing to prevent such violent acts on individuals who are simply just trying to come to the United States and seek asylum?
(MAYORKAS)
HARLOW: Would you, Secretary, qualify what is happening on the border right now as a crisis?
(MAYORKAS)
I understand that, but just what you're seeing -- what you've seen the 20 times you've been there -- the record number of migrants at the Southern border, and last year it was nearly 2.4 million. If that's not a crisis, Secretary, what is?
(MAYORKAS)
I understand that, Mr. Secretary, but this is in the hands of you, now, and the Biden administration. I would just finally say that border officials have been consistently telling Rosa Flores, our colleague, they feel abandoned by this administration -- by the federal government -- so why has it taken two years for President Biden to go down to the Southern border.
(...)
Fox News Live
January 8, 2023
1:08 p.m. Eastern
GRIFF JENKINS: Like clockwork -- all day, every day -- migrants come. Since our last trip one hour ago, we had a group of about 20 from Colombia, Nicaragua, and Ecuador -- about a dozen family units and six single adults. Let me take you up to our drone in the sky and show you Eagle Pass here, part of the Del Rio sector where officials tell me, in the last 24 hours, they've had 1,155 migrant encounters in just this sector alone. That's why you can see high in the sky the containers -- the shipping containers that Governor Greg Abbott -- Texas Governor Greg Abbott has placed here with razor wire on top to try and slow it down.
And, Mike, stunning new numbers. CBP sources giving Fox News early this morning across the entire Southwest border, we can show you nearly 170,000, and they are up more than 220 percent from this time last year. And that bottom number, Mike, more than 78,000 known got aways -- we don't know where they came from, where they're going, or why they are here. We just know that border officials observed them and were not able to bring them into custody.
(...)
And, Mike, finally, one thing I just want to leave our viewers with because, having covered this for many years, one thing Mexico does is that they give every migrant that comes across in the southern part of Mexico. So when they cross from Guatemala, they get a temporary visa. This is a gentleman named Jonathan from Ecuador. He was stamped in from January 2 of this year, so just six days ago. He threw this and discarded it when he crossed because he didn't need it anymore. He had a 30-day visa to apply for asylum or whatever, but Mexico just facilitated the ease with which they moved north to come across.
(...)
TOM HOMAN, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR/FORMER ACTING ICE DIRECTOR: They want to parole 30,000 people a month. That's an abuse of the parole policy. The parole policy says you're going to parole somebody -- an individual -- on a case-by-case basis for a significant public benefit. You can't just group up 30,000 and bring them that's illegal. There's a lawsuit pending in Florida, and it's going to trial this week. So I think it's going to put a stop to this. This is smoke and mirrors.
So they're going to bring 30,000 people in, which will decrease the illegal entries by 30,000, they think. And then they'll claim victory. It's illegal, it's wrong, and it's just, again, they're legalizing illegal immigration. They should be securing the border. That's the number one thing the border patrol agents need. Secure the border first, and stop making up all these policies that are in violation of federal statute that they're going to end up losing in court.
(...)
MIKE EMANUEL: Let's put on the screen the latest numbers from Customs and Border Protection (sic) -- 718,062 encounters; 198,071 Title 42 expulsions this fiscal year since October 1 -- 100 days. What do you make of those numbers?
HOMAN: Look, we're on a glide path to beat last year's historic numbers, which beat the first year's historic numbers. What people need to understand what no one is talking about is, based on court data, 90 percent of these people coming across the border claiming asylum don't qualify for asylum. They'll be ordered removed -- 90 percent. Look, they break the law when they enter the country illegally. That's a violation of Title 8 in the United States Code, 1325.
They commit a crime coming across the border illegally, they commit a crime by claiming asylum fraud -- which is a felony. They get ordered removed, and this administration is not even looking for them. So that sends a message to every country in the world, you can come to the United States, you'll be released, you can even lose your case, and you're going to get to stay, and you get a work authorization.
