The following is a transcript of an interview with Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” that aired on Oct. 13, 2024.
MARGARET BRENNAN: And we begin this morning with Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, Welcome back to Face The Nation.
SECRETARY ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS: Good morning, Margaret. Thank you for having me.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Mr. Secretary, you oversee FEMA. There is still seven weeks left in hurricane season. FEMA’s Director says they’ve already used nearly half of the 20 billion in disaster relief Congress allocated to them, but the Speaker of the House says FEMA has plenty of resources, they have been slow to respond and that FEMA hasn’t actually distributed the money. Can you clear that up?
SECRETARY MAYORKAS: Margaret, FEMA has the money to address the immediate needs of individuals impacted by Hurricanes Helene and Milton, but we need Congress to act swiftly to fund FEMA and specifically its Disaster Relief Fund, because hurricane season is not over, and also seasons are less and less important now, given the effects of climate change and the increasing gravity and frequency of extreme weather events. And I should say, FEMA has not been slow at all. It already has distributed more than $470 million in relief to individuals impacted by Hurricane Helene. I take great pride, and this nation should take great pride, in the extraordinary work of our FEMA personnel and all first responders.
MARGARET BRENNAN: So this is obligated versus distributed. That’s where you two are sort of disagreeing with each other, but it seems. But before Hurricane Milton hit, you said October 2, ‘we do not have the funds,’ FEMA doesn’t have the funds, ‘to make it through the season and what is imminent.’ So if another hurricane hits before the election, are there funds to deal with that kind of emergency situation?
SECRETARY MAYORKAS: We will address the immediate impacts. But remember, immediate impacts. Speak of immediate needs, meals, potable water and the like. But also we have to ensure that individuals can recover from these extreme disasters, such as rebuilding their homes, repairing damage and the like. And so we need Congress to act swiftly to fund what should be a nonpartisan, apolitical phenomenon, and that is providing relief to all individuals with respect to the impacts of these extreme weather events
MARGARET BRENNAN: So immediate versus rebuilding, so you could wait until after the election. Do you know how much you’ll need?
SECRETARY MAYORKAS: We don’t. We don’t know, but we are still, for example, assessing the damage from Hurricane Milton, which is of historic strength. And it also led to approximately 27 different tornadoes. So we don’t know the impact. We don’t know what’s coming tomorrow, whether it’s another hurricane, a tornado, a fire, an earthquake. We have to be ready, and it is not good government to be dependent on a day to day existence, as opposed to appropriate planning.
MARGARET BRENNAN: We’ve seen some dangerous misinformation being amplified online. Florida’s governor Ron DeSantis hit back hard at some of these claims that if you got help from the federal government, somehow they’d seize your assets in his state. FEMA has been trying to counteract some of these lies as well. Are you concerned when you see this and how widespread it is that it’s a preview of what’s to come with the upcoming US election as well? attempts to manipulate people?
SECRETARY MAYORKAS: Incredibly concerned. And the misinformation, I should say it’s disinformation, false information deliberately spread to impact people’s behavior and perceptions, it is extremely pernicious. We have individuals in need of assistance, who are entitled to assistance, who aren’t seeking it because of the false information.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Who is driving it?
SECRETARY MAYORKAS: Well, I’ll tell you what we need. We need individuals, elected officials, people who have the platform to really debunk this false information. And we’re not seeing enough of that, and I find that to be incredibly irresponsible and irresponsible to the people who are survivors of these extreme weather events.
MARGARET BRENNAN: You have a big portfolio at Homeland Security. And of course, the US border is part of that. Border crossings are now at a low for the Biden presidency. But our CBS polling shows 65% of Trump voters believe the Biden administration is trying to intentionally increase the number of migrants at the border. And among the people who do believe that, three quarters of them say it’s because the administration wants them to vote, and the Speaker of the House just told us that he thinks noncitizens are going to vote, even though this is already illegal under established law. What mechanisms can you tell the public about that exist to prevent this from happening?
SECRETARY MAYORKAS: So what a, what a powerful example of disinformation. Information. There is no facts underlying these assertions. They are extremely damaging. It causes people to lose confidence in the integrity of the election system, and we need people in positions of authority to actually communicate accurate information to the voting public. We are- the numbers that we are experiencing now at the border are actually lower than they were at this time of year in 2019. And so it’s not just over the last three years, but well before them, in the pre-Covid times. And the notion, the notion, that we in law enforcement have sought the, to intentionally allow individuals to cross the border illegally for the purpose of voting is preposterous, and everyone should condemn that rhetoric, everyone, regardless of party affiliation.
MARGARET BRENNAN: So on the issue of the actions you’ve taken to bring these border crossings down, this was President Biden’s presidential power. He’s essentially disqualifying most of those who are entering illegally from being able to get asylum. This was meant to be a temporary policy change, so you took this without having to go to Congress and change the law. In short.
SECRETARY MAYORKAS: We took it after Congress failed to take the enduring step-
MARGARET BRENNAN: Right–
SECRETARY MAYORKAS: Of legislation, which was bipartisan in nature.
MARGARET BRENNAN: But just in doing that, by doing this through presidential power, aren’t you essentially doing what Republicans said was possible throughout, which was with the stroke of a pen, President Biden could stop all of this?
SECRETARY MAYORKAS: No, and remember where we were. We were enforcing Title 42, the public health authority, until May of last year. We then sought from Congress additional funding, additional border patrol agents, additional Homeland Security Investigations personnel. They did not fund the Department of Homeland Security to enhance our border security. We sought that funding again. Again rejected. A bipartisan group of senators actually presented a, the most dramatic change in legislation in over 20 years. Congress was poised to pass it, and then politics got in the way. Some people would prefer the problem to persist than deliver a solution for the American people. The President acted, and remember, we had to build the capacity to implement so successfully the President’s proclamation, and that is indeed what we have been doing month after month
MARGARET BRENNAN: So, but on this issue of who is in the country I know, practically speaking, it is very difficult to deport, for example, to the country of Venezuela. Donald Trump, on the campaign trail, talks a lot about a prison gang from that country, and he argues there’s already laws on the books that would allow for the Biden administration to dismantle criminal networks. He says he’d do it. Are there those laws, you know? Are you doing everything you can to combat this transnational criminal organization?
SECRETARY MAYORKAS: Yes we are, and I think you’re speaking of Tren de Aragua, TDA. Margaret, I was a prosecutor for 12 years. We had criminal gangs to battle back then. We are indeed doing everything we can to dismantle criminal gangs and transnational criminal organizations, and quite frankly, we’ve devoted an unprecedented level of resources and personnel and focus to this effort. This is not a new phenomenon, but we are bringing new tools, new capabilities and new resources to the fight.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Can you quickly explain what the status is with this arrest this past week, or this prosecution we learned of this past week, of this Afghan national who was apparently planning an election day terrorist attack on behalf of ISIS? He was in this country, he had immigration status. Was he radicalized before he came to the United States?
SECRETARY MAYORKAS: So Margaret, it is an ongoing prosecution, so I won’t speak of the facts. But the viewing public is getting an idea of the breadth and diversity of the missions that we in the Department of Homeland Security–
MARGARET BRENNAN: But it gets to the issue of vetting versus whether he was radicalized here.
SECRETARY MAYORKAS: Remember the individual came in through parol, an Afghan national. And when we vet and we do so intensively, when we vet an individual, it’s a point in time screening and vetting process. If we obtain information subsequently that suggests the individual could be of danger, we take appropriate law enforcement action. That is exactly what we did in this case,
MARGARET BRENNAN: Understood. Secretary Mayorkas, thank you for your time today.
SECRETARY MAYORKAS: Thank you, Margaret.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Face the Nation will be back in a minute. Stay with us.