Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) demanded Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to “change course or change jobs” on Thursday amid the Biden administration’s southern border crisis.
Mayorkas said Tuesday the U.S. is expected to reach the highest number of people apprehended at the U.S.-Mexico border in two decades. “We are on pace to encounter more individuals on the southwest border than we have in the last 20 years. We are expelling most single adults and families. We are not expelling unaccompanied children,” he said in a statement.
As reported by NBC News:
As of Sunday, Customs and Border Protection was encountering 565 unaccompanied children crossing the border on average per day, according to new data obtained by NBC News, up from an average of 313 children per day last month.
The surge has created a backlog in Border Patrol stations, with over 4,200 children in custody and 2,943 of those children being held over the 72-hour legal limit. The new figures are a record high, topping last week, when there were roughly 3,000 children in Border Patrol custody, 1,400 of whom were being held over the 72-hour limit.
FEMA is quickly building “decompression centers” in Dallas and Midland, Texas to allow Health and Human Services, the agency equipped to care for children before they are placed with sponsors, to take more children out of border patrol custody. Continued Below
In a scathing statement on Thursday, Senator Lindsey Graham said, “It is clear to me the Biden Administration has lost control of the border. Under its current leadership it doesn’t have either the will or capability to fix the problem.”
“The solutions are obvious but will require an understanding that the Biden Administration’s early policy choices – to abandon Trump’s successful border policies – was a mistake. It is time for DHS Secretary Mayorkas to change course or change jobs,” Graham demanded.
“The situation is bad and only going to get worse. Unless there is immediate and drastic change, the worst is yet to come – by far” he warned. Continued Below
Senator Lindsey Graham’s statement:
It is clear to me the Biden Administration has lost control of the border.
Under its current leadership it doesn’t have either the will or capability to fix the problem.
https://t.co/qDEHt7aMxd— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) March 18, 2021
The situation is bad and only going to get worse.
Unless there is immediate and drastic change, the worst is yet to come – by far.
— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) March 18, 2021
Meanwhile, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas spoke to “CBS This Morning” to discuss the surge and over the Biden administration’s plans for handling it.
