White House doubles down after Biden admits US border not secure: 'The system is broken'
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre struggled to explain an apparent rift between President Biden and DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on border issues.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre doubled down on President Biden's admission that the U.S. border is not secure on Monday.
Jean-Pierre nevertheless dodged when asked why Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has repeatedly testified to Congress that the border is in fact secure. The White House described the border as a "broken" system that needs further funding.
"On Friday, President Biden said that he does not believe the border is secure, which is different from what Secretary Mayorkas has testified multiple times on the Hill. Why do they have two different views of the security of the border?" a reporter asked.
"The president has been really clear that we need to move on the border," Jean-Pierre responded. "Him saying that we need to deal with border security, as we, as Mayorkas, as we all have here been doing at the White House, I think shows that we have an issue at the border and we need to deal with it, and we have to act now. There's an urgent need."
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"Mayorkas, who is tasked with making sure those resources are applied – If he is saying something different than the president about whether it's secure or not. I guess I have a hard time understanding why there is a disconnect here," the reporter pressed.
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"Look, the president has repeatedly said the immigration system is broken," Jean-Pierre responded, going on to point to immigration proposals he put forward over the past three years.
Biden's administration has sought to downplay record-high levels of illegal immigration seen in the late months of 2023. As many as 10,000 migrants were arrested daily at the southwest U.S. border in December, but the White House sought to pass it off as a seasonal surge.
There were 242,418 migrant encounters at the southern border in November – the highest November on record and the third-highest month ever.
Meanwhile, Republicans on Capitol Hill are pursuing impeachment against Mayorkas.
"This one man is the architect of destruction down here. One man has caused all this chaos, deaths from fentanyl poisoning, danger to the country with terrorists coming in and 8 million encounters with no legal status. He is the architect. He has destroyed the fabric of this nation," Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, told Fox News' Maria Bartiromo on Sunday.
Fox News' Lawrence Richard contributed to this report