ICYMI: Secretary Mayorkas Discusses Progress at Border and Start of Family Reunifications on MSNBC

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY Office of Public Affairs ICYMI: Secretary Mayorkas Discusses Progress at Border and Start of Family Reunifications on MSNBC  WASHINGTON – Today, Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro N. Mayorkas appeared in an interview on MSNBC's Morning Joe to discuss the reunification of families who were unjustly separated under the prior administration and the progress that has been made at the border.    Watch the full interview here and see below for excerpts.     "Our highest priority is to reunite these families. As we so powerfully saw, these are young people in their formative years. These are sometimes children as young as 3 years old. We are addressing the needs and vulnerabilities, not only of the children, but of course, their mothers, their fathers, the people that make up these families. It takes time to review records that, quite frankly were in shambles when we inherited them, inaccurate, incomplete. We need to verify identifies, find the families, arrange for their travel. And importantly, develop a process where we can systemically bring them into this country safely and begin the healing process. We cannot do it alone, we rely on and work with community-based organizations, nonprofit organizations that have been doing this work for three years, ever since the cruel and inhumane policies of the prior administration began. We couldn't do it without them."    "It's difficult to find the families, it's difficult to identify them, to verify their identification, and it's extremely difficult sometimes to overcome the fear that the prior administration instilled in them and have them come forward so we can indeed bring them into the United States under our humanitarian authorities. Our announcement of the reunification of four families is only the beginning, but it's an important beginning to, in fact, publicize. Because the fact of this success, which we could not achieve without our community partners, will hopefully reduce or eliminate the fear that other families have in coming forward and we will build confidence in the integrity of our effort and the sincerity of our commitment to reunite these families."    "Regrettably, the spectrum, the range of conditions in which those children remain in the United States, if, in fact, they are here, is quite broad. Some live with immediate relatives, some with distant relatives, some are placed in foster care because they're unaccompanied and they don't have a sponsor in the United States. Some, as Jacob correctly noted, have been separated for more than three years. And their families are – sometimes their parents are in the countries of origin, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, a tremendous distance away. Some of these children are in their most formative years, their most formative stages of development, others are acutely vulnerable by reason of their incredible youth. Three years of age, at the time of separation, it's extraordinarily cruel and inhumane, what occurred before us."    "It's not about righting the wrong of the past, it's about restoring the conscience of our government. It's about reuniting the families and we're not ready to say that some children will never be reunited with their parents, we're just not ready to say that. You know, we heard loudly and clearly from some of the community-based organizations yesterday when we first announced the reunification of these four families about the work they've been doing for three years in the trenches. These are heroic efforts by community-based organizations. These are heroic efforts by counsel who represent these separated families and try to vindicate their rights and bring healing to them. We're privileged to work alongside them. Our efforts are going to be unrelenting and we're not prepared to say that any child will not be reunited with their parent."    "About five weeks ago, I said publicly that this challenge is a serious one, but we have a plan. And we know how to manage a situation like this, this is what we do. We are executing on our plan and it takes time. Now it is a month later, on March 28th, we had 5,767 unaccompanied children in a Border Patrol station. On March 28th, the average stay of an unaccompanied child in a Border Patrol station was 133 hours. We have about 600 children in a Border Patrol station now and the average length of stay is under 30 hours. We've been executing our plan, we will continue to do so, and we have the situation with respect to the unaccompanied children under control. That doesn't mean that the challenge is behind us, migration is a dynamic and perpetual challenge, but this is the work that we do."     # # #

 

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