DHS Sec. Mayorkas: Mexico Stopped Enforcing the Border in ‘23, We Saw Trains Coming to the Border

EXCERPT:

MAYORKAS: "And I think every country has a significant role to play in managing migration. It is not up to one country. And I have said this for many a year, that if our border is the first line of defense, it is too late. And let me share with you a very powerful example of that. In December of 2023, we experienced the highest level of encounters of any one month, I think, potentially in our history, and certainly in the past 20 years. What happened in December was that the Mexican enforcement agency was unfunded, and so there was no interdiction effort and we saw trains coming to the border carrying thousands of individuals. You may recall that President Biden then spoke with President Lopez Obrador at that time and then dispatched Secretary Blinken and me to Mexico to explain what the problem was and what we needed Mexico to do in partnership with us. President Lopez Obrador took action, refunded the enforcement agency, and in January the numbers plummeted. That’s an example of the importance of interdiction of another country enforcing its laws before individuals arrive at our border. So, it is a shared responsibility."