Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Alejandro Mayorkas, who’s facing looming impeachment hearings in Congress related to the border crisis, said Thursday that over 70 percent of illegal immigrants are being released into U.S. communities after an initial arrest.
Mr. Mayorkas made the remarks in a Jan. 4 broadcast of Fox News’ “Special Report,” in which he was asked by the host to provide an estimate of the number of illegal immigrants who have been released into the country since President Joe Biden took office.
The DHS chief replied that it’s “well more than a million a year” while blaming an immigration system that needs fixing because it’s “so fundamentally broken.”
Efforts at immigration reform have faltered in Congress. In 2021, President Joe Biden proposed an immigration bill titled the U.S. Citizenship Act of 2021, which immediately sparked disagreements over controversial provisions like pathways to citizenship for illegal immigrants, including for so-called DREAMers, which some Republicans panned as “mass amnesty” and “far more radical” than prior efforts.
Mr. Mayorkas was then asked if he’d find it surprising to hear that U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) sources told Fox News that they’re currently releasing over 70 percent of illegal immigrants crossing the border each day. The DHS chief acknowledged that this sounds about right.
“It would not surprise me at all. I know the data,” he said. “I will tell you that, when individuals are released, they are released into immigration enforcement proceedings. They are on alternatives to detention.”
“And we have returned or removed a record number of individuals. We are enforcing the laws that Congress has passed,” Mr. Mayorkas insisted.
A recent report from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) shows that the number of non-detained illegal immigrants inside the United States has now exceeded 6 million, up from just over 3 million in 2020, former President Donald Trump’s final year in office.
Non-Detained Illegal Immigrants
The ICE report for fiscal year 2023, released on Dec. 29, paints a mostly bleak picture of the growing problem of illegal immigration in the United States—although it does confirm Mr. Mayorka’s statement that a record number of illegal immigrants were deported last year.Authorities deported over 142,000 illegal immigrants in 2023, nearly double from the year before. Opponents of open borders may welcome an increase in this figure. However, critics have pointed out that it is more a reflection of the massive increase in the sheer number of illegal immigrants entering the country in recent years rather than ramped-up enforcement.
The number of individuals deported is also a mere fraction of the 2 million or so known entries reported by CBP along just the U.S. southern border in 2023.
In terms of illegal immigrants being released into U.S. communities, the ICE report shows a staggering rise over the past few years in the number of illegal immigrants on the non-detained docket. This is the case management system or list of individuals facing immigration proceedings (including final orders of removal or pending removal proceedings) but not held in ICE detention.
This number has soared from 4.7 million in 2022 to 6.2 million in 2023—a jump of over 30 percent. By comparison, the number of illegal immigrants on the non-detained rolls was 3.26 million in 2020 and 3.6 million in 2021.
According to the report, a sharp rise in the number of individuals crossing the U.S.-Mexico border unlawfully is the main driver of the increase.
The number of detained illegal immigrants also rose, the report shows. This figure increased from 26,299 in 2022 to 36,845 in 2023.
Meanwhile, the total number of known illegal southern border crossings has jumped from around 405,000 in 2020 to 2.1 million in 2023.
Nationwide, the number of illegal immigrant encounters has more than tripled over that period—from 647,000 in President Trump’s final year in office to 3.2 million in President Biden’s third year in the White House.
Republicans have blamed President Biden’s policies for the increase. During his first 100 days in office, President Biden took dozens of executive actions related to immigration, including ordering a halt to the border wall.
President Trump has repeatedly said he sees the influx of illegal immigrants as a national security crisis and has vowed to impose tough border security measures the moment he gets into office—if he wins the 2024 presidential race.
Officials told The Epoch Times that lawmakers are set to start impeachment proceedings on Jan. 10.
Mr. Mayorkas, who has repeatedly blamed outside factors for the ongoing immigration crisis—including climate change and a “broken” immigration system—has said he will cooperate with the investigation and hearings.
Asked during the Fox News interview whether he’d step down if impeached, Mr. Mayorkas dodged the question—though he hinted he might not.
“I will continue to lead them in advancing the mission of protecting the American people,” he said, after noting that he heads an “incredibly dedicated and talented” DHS workforce of some 260,000 individuals.
“That’s what we do in the area of immigration, the area of cybersecurity, in our fight against human trafficking, in saving communities devastated by extreme weather events,” he continued. “We do so much for the American people, and I’m incredibly proud to do it.”
