Senator Cruz slams DHS Secretary Mayorkas over their handling of the border crisis

In their latest clash, Senator Ted Cruz grilled DHS secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Tuesday about the Biden administration’s handling of the U.S. border and illegal immigrants. The clash took place during a  Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on the oversight of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

Throughout the hearing, Mayorkas acknowledged several times that the U.S. immigration system is “fundamentally broken.”

Senator Cruz stepped in and asked Mayorkas, “True or false: under President Trump’s administration we saw the lowest rates of illegal immigration in 45 years?”

Mayorkas responded that he was not sure if it was in 45 years, but that in 2020 “we certainly saw a low level of illegal immigration.”

“True or false: this year under Joe Biden we’ve seen the highest rate of illegal immigration in 61 years?” continued Cruz. While Mayorkas did not know the exact numbers, he agreed that it was a historic high.”

“While the immigration system is certainly broken,” said Cruz responding to Mayorkas “you are the one that broke it.”

Cruz repeatedly referred to “Biden cages” that children were held in at the border, a term that Mayorkas repeatedly rejected.

Cruz continued to grill Mayorkas about the number of deaths of illegal immigrants, unaccompanied children that have crossed the border, Covid-19 positive migrants, murderers and child molesters that have been released.

Mayorkas did not have concrete answers for any of these questions.

You can watch the testy exchange here: