Alejandro Mayorias, Homeland Security secretary: Biden team has plans to diffuse migrant surge

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, fresh from a trip to the border, made the rounds of the Sunday political talk shows to try to defuse growing worries over the Biden team’s handling of the migrant surge, insisting they have plans to solve the situation.

But he rebuffed attempts by news anchors for reporters to gain access to the facilities where children are being kept, blaming coronavirus.

“Let’s be clear here. We are in the midst of a pandemic,” he told NBC’s “Meet the Press.” He said that means Border Patrol agents are focused on their jobs and on processing the children, not on working to provide the press access.

He did refute claims that agents have been told not to talk to reporters.

“That is unequivocally false,” the secretary said.

And on CNN’s “State of the Union” program, he said there is no current effort to fly children to the northern border for processing to alleviate the pressure on the southern border. But he said “all options” remain open.

He also again blamed the Trump administration for leaving a “dismantled” system for allowing migrants to try to enter, but declined to say whether they anticipated the surge that’s resulted after President Biden’s more lenient approach.

Mr. Mayorkas toured the border Friday with four senators, the top Democrat and Republican on the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee and the spending subcommittee that oversees Homeland Security’s budget.

One of the senators, Ohio Republican Sen. Rob Portman, said there’s no question Mr. Biden’s changes spurred the new surge, changing the incentives-and-risks calculation by making it more likely folks can gain a foothold here, even if they don’t qualify for long-term protections.

“It’s a bad situation,” he told CBS’s “Face the Nation.”

Democrats have also belatedly begun to express concerns.

Reo. Sheila Jackson Lee, Texas Democrat, told MSNBC the Biden team’s plan to handle the surge of children “does not look like it’s working.”

Still, she said they have to be given time to “get it implemented.”

In Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott ordered an investigation Saturday into the water supply for a camp the Biden administration has opened for migrant children, after he said water at another camp proved to be undrinkable.

The investigation is focused on a holding facility in Pecos, the fourth surge facility Mr. Mayorkas has opened.

Mr. Abbott said the rush to open the camps to hold children is evidence they were not prepared. He p[ointed to a camp opened in Midland, Texas, which was found to have undrinkable water.

“The Biden administration continues to show that it is dangerously unprepared to handle the surge in illegal border crossings as they rush to open yet another facility for unaccompanied minors in Texas,” the Republican governor said.

Republicans have challenged Mr. Biden to visit personally. On Sunday he said he will — eventually.

“At some point I will, yes,” Mr. Biden said when asked if he was thinking of going to the border. “I know what’s going on in those facilities.”

David Sherfinski contributed to this article.