Mayorkas: We Have Record Border Numbers Due to Climate, Poverty, Authoritarianism

On Wednesday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas stated that there are record numbers of people coming to the southern border because there has been “the greatest number of displaced people, not only at our southern border, not only in the Western Hemisphere, but across the globe” And “the effects of climate change, poverty, increasing level[s] of authoritarianism” are the root causes of this.

Co-host Willie Geist asked, “As you know, Mr. Secretary, Border Patrol, in the month of December, processed more migrants entering the United States illegally than any month in the history of that agency. Why is that happening? How do you explain it?”

Mayorkas responded, “So, we are seeing the greatest number of displaced people, not only at our southern border, not only in the Western Hemisphere, but across the globe. I am involved in bilateral and multilateral meetings with my counterparts from foreign countries in Europe, in Asia, in the Indo-Pacific, all over the world. And migration, the challenge of displaced people, is a subject that comes up in every single conversation. We have the effects of climate change, poverty, increasing level[s] of authoritarianism. There are very many challenges that are at the root cause of the displacement of people around the world.”