Immigration /

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas admits over 85% of illegal migrants are released into the U.S.

  |   By Polling+ Staff

Photo by John Moore/Getty Images

After a private meeting between Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Border Patrol agents in Eagle Pass, Texas, sources in the room during discussions told Fox News reporter Bill Melugin that the Secretary made a stunning admittance. In the Monday meeting, “Mayorkas admitted that the current release rate for migrants caught crossing the border illegally is ‘above 85%” the source said.

Mayorkas confirmed that recent reports of the staggering numbers of released illegal migrants encountered at the border were in fact true, perhaps even underestimated. News Nation border correspondent Ali Bradley said she spoke with sources that confirmed Mayorkas had indeed made the statement.

The Daily Signal lays out the math:

In December, Customs and Border Protection encountered a record 302,000 illegal immigrants at or between ports of entry along the southern border. If 85% of those encountered at the southern border in December were released into the U.S., that totals more than 256,000 people, roughly the same population as Laredo, Texas, where many illegal aliens are crossing.

The number of illegal aliens released into the U.S. in December is nearly the same number of people the Department of Homeland Security employs.
Additionally, if 85% of the 3.2 million illegal aliens encountered in all of fiscal year 2023 were in fact released into the U.S., that’s 2.7 million—more than the population of 15 U.S. states, including 
New Mexico, Nebraska, and Idaho.

After the meeting on Monday, the Department of Homeland Security released a video clip of Mayorkas speaking on its official X, formerly Twitter, account. “After the ending of Title 42 in May … through the end of the fiscal year, DHS removed or returned more noncitizens without a basis to remain in the United States than in any other five-month period in the last ten years” Mayorkas said in an attempt to avoid public scrutiny of the crisis.

“In fact,” Mayorkas continued, “the majority of all migrant encounters at the Southwest border throughout this Administration have been removed, returned, or expelled—the majority of them. We are doing everything we can, within a broken system, to incentivize noncitizens to use lawful pathways, to impose consequences on those who do not, and to reduce irregular migration.”

Lora Ries, director of the Border Security and Immigration Center at The Heritage Foundation, calls Mayorkas’ remarks “word games.”
“When Mayorkas plays word games, using ridiculous terms like ‘noncitizens,’ ‘lawful pathways,’ and ‘irregular migration’ instead of accurately describing reality with words like ‘illegal aliens,’ ‘mass parole,’ and ‘illegal immigration,’ there is no reason to believe his portrayal of being an enforcer of immigration laws,” Ries said.

Republican lawmakers in the House are moving forward with impeachment proceedings against Mayorkas starting on Wednesday, adds The Daily Signal.