President Joe Biden's Department of Homeland Security admitted that a great number of Haitian illegal immigrants were actually released into the United States.
The Epoch Times reported that Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas revealed during an interview with Fox News Sunday that roughly 12,000 Haitians are being released into the United States following the processing of their cases by immigration courts. This excludes another 5,000 whose cases would still be processed.
Meanwhile, Fox News said 12,400 of the 17,000 cases are being heard by immigration judges while 3,000 are kept in detention.
"Approximately, I think it's about ten thousand or so, twelve thousand. It could be even higher. The number that are returned could be even higher. What we do is we follow the law as Congress has passed it," Mayorkas said in the interview.
Former acting ICE director Tom Homan, however, blasted Mayorkas for the misleading claims he made to Fox News, saying the illegal immigrants aren't actually being procesed.
"When you say 12,000 are in immigration proceedings, they are not," said Homan. "That's what the secretary leads you to believe, but many of them were released on the notice to report."
"They're only going to be in immigration proceedings if they chose to voluntarily show up and turn themselves in, which most won't. So the secretary is misleading on what he told Chris Wallace."
The immigration crisis escalated when more than 10,000 Haitians crossed the Mexican border and encamped under a Texas bridge in Del Rio the week of September 17. The Haitians, who are said to be living in Central America and South America for a long time, ignored knee-high water while carrying their children and supplies just to get to North American soil.
Biden announced immediately, after media attention and images of the Haitians' situation under the Texas bridge went viral, that they will deport the illegal immigrants back to their country. Accordingly, a first batch of illegal immigrants were flown back to Haiti on September 19 from the Del Rio International Airport. A total of 3,000 immigrants were targeted to be deported in 24 hours in what was called to be the largest migrant expulsion program of the government that was anchored on Title 42 "authorities."
But not long after the expulsion program began, reports of Haitians being released on American soil on "a very, very large scale" came out. Initial reports revealed that 4,000 migrants have been relocated to detention centers and only 523 Haitians have been deported to Haiti.
Prior to the interview with Fox News, Mayorkas pointed out the need for reforms in legislature during a press conference held at The White House on Saturday. Mayorkas claimed that what took place at Del Rio, Texas reflects a "broken immigration system" that requires "legislative reform."
"We are dealing with a broken immigration system and we need legislative reform--and everyone agrees," Mayorkas highlighted.
Mayorkas revealed in a Twitter post that what was seen trending in social media and reported by mainstream media the past week on the situation of the Haitians under the Texas bridge in Del Rio do not actually reflect "who we are as a country" nor of the United States Customs and Border Protection.
"I am intensely and immensely proud of the men and women of the @CBP. In fact, in Del Rio, Texas, I saw them act heroically. What those images suggest does not reflect who @CBP is, who we are as a Department, nor who we are as a country," Mayorkas pointed out.
Mayorkas disclosed that a new immigration system is being built--one that is "safe" and "orderly" so that migration claims could be processed accordingly while laws are also being put in place.
"We are rebuilding our immigration system. We are rebuilding humanitarian, safe, and orderly pathways for individuals to make their claims here in the US. We are also applying the law, in this case, it is a public health law to protect the American public, communities & migrants," Mayorkas disclosed on Sunday in Twitter.
In a series of tweets, Mayorkas claimed that the immigration system has been broken for years before Biden came in that is why the president has immediately provided legislation for this from day one of office to "fix" the "broken system."
"There is one thing as to which there is complete unanimity-that we're dealing with a broken immigration system. That's why @POTUS on day one sent a bill to Congress to once and for all fix what everyone agrees is a broken system," Mayorkas stressed.
"This challenge spans many, many years. It spans different administrations of both parties, and it speaks to the need for legislative reform," he alleged.
