The Real 'Border Czar' Defends the Biden-Harris Record
About this episode
Ezra Klein presses Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on why southwest border encounters surged to record highs — nearly 300,000 that December — under Biden, and why it acted so late. Mayorkas cites post-pandemic displacement, the greatest since World War II; destabilized source countries like Ecuador; and smuggling networks using social media and disinformation to market the asylum system. He explains how migrants shifted from sneaking across the border to surrendering to claim asylum, exploiting years-long backlogs. He defends the administration's toolkit — the asylum officer rule, the Circumvention of Lawful Pathways regulation, the CBP One app, parole programs for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans, and the June 2024 proclamation — which he says cut encounters by over half. He rejects that Democratic rhetoric was the draw, arguing the broken system itself was the magnet, and insists only Congress can fix it, blaming Trump for killing the bipartisan deal.