Border Patrol Agents Confront DHS Chief Mayorkas to His Face in Heated Clash: 'You're Not Gonna Get Away with Pandering'
Border Patrol agents confronted Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas during a recent visit to El Paso, Texas, according to an agent in the room during the meeting who spoke with the Daily Caller News Foundation.
The agent, who requested anonymity because the individual was not authorized to speak, said a colleague confronted Mayorkas and accused him of making empty promises about helping with the surge in illegal immigration, falsely asserting that the border is “secure” and lambasting the force.
Mayorkas made the visit to El Paso on Tuesday as the area is overwhelmed by a recent surge in illegal immigrants reaching the U.S.-Mexican border and as the expected end of Title 42, the public health expulsion order, threatens to make matters even worse.
The Washington Examiner first reported the confrontation, which occurred during a meeting with a limited group of senior and rank-and-file agents to discuss the rise in suicides in the agency. The outlet cited three government officials.
During the meeting, at least one agent asked Mayorkas why he hasn’t fulfilled their requests for additional border security equipment and instead has chosen to publicly slander them, according to the agent in the room who spoke with the DCNF.
“You came here six months ago,” the agent said, recalling the colleague’s words during the confrontation. “You offered us cameras, they were going to run about $2 million. And you said that you were going to get it for us and upon you departing we found out that the money is not going to be allocated until two more years.”
“You went to Del Rio, you expressed yourself and you talked bad about the Border Patrol,” the agent who confronted Mayorkas said, according to the colleague in the room.
The agent was referencing the homeland security secretary’s previous comments that now-debunked allegations of agents whipping illegal immigrants reminded him of “systemic racism.”
“He started then going back and forth with the agent. He said, ‘I never said,’” the agent who spoke with the DCNF said of the conversation.
A senior Border Patrol official in the room then tried to intervene, but the agent interjected, saying, “No, let him respond. He’s here, he wants to be here. Now he has to answer the questions that we got for him no matter how tough they are,” according to the agent who spoke with the DCNF.
“We’re gonna be respectful. We’re not gonna yell. We’re gonna treat you with the respect, but we’re gonna expect answers. You’re not gonna get away with pandering.”
Another agent asked Mayorkas to provide his definition of “secure borders” after the secretary publicly said the southern border is “secure” amid record levels of illegal immigration.
“Again, he is lying his a** off saying that ‘no, I never said that,’” the agent who spoke with the DCNF said.
“We’re agents, we’ve seen you, we heard you,” the agent said, adding that Mayorkas again denied making the statement and moved on to another question.
SCOOP — DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas was confronted by at least one Border Patrol agent during his visit to El Paso, Texas, this week about why he continues to state the border is “secure.” https://t.co/ByCIdFN9nF pic.twitter.com/bZQkvNhf1V
— Anna Giaritelli (@Anna_Giaritelli) December 15, 2022
Agents also asked Mayorkas why his strategy to curb illegal immigration is to increase their holding capacity, according to the agent.
Federal border authorities encountered a record of more than 2.3 million migrants in fiscal 2022. Adding to the continued surge, the city of El Paso has been experiencing more than 2,000 migrant encounters each day.
“What are we doing? Because the strategy being used is wrong, because we shouldn’t try to be looking for money to build bigger detention facilities, instead we should be working on keeping them outside,” the agent recalled the colleague asking.
Mayorkas said he was working on programs but provided few details, according to the agent who spoke with the DCNF.
“So all of this is empty promises about help that is coming, and how can you win our trust when you’ve been saying the same stuff for six months and have nothing to show for it?” the agent asked.
“I don’t disagree with you,” Mayorkas responded, according to the agent who spoke with the DCNF. The agent then asked if Mayorkas would agree, but he refused to, the agent who was in the room said.
The Department of Homeland Security didn’t respond to a request for comment.
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