Doocy: If the Border Is Secure, Why Send 1,500 Troops? Jean-Pierre: 'More Work Needs to Be Done' (May 2, 2023)

Fox News’ Peter Doocy put the Biden administration’s own talking point to the test nine days before Title 42 expired. “If the border is secure, as the administration has said, then why would we need to send 1,500 active-duty U.S. troops down there?” he asked White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre [1].

The video above shows the start of that May 2, 2023, exchange. Quotes are from the official briefing transcript published by The American Presidency Project, which also records the testy back-and-forth that followed. RealClearPolitics’ transcript of the video identifies the questioner as Doocy [2].

”More Work Needs to Be Done”

“Because we need more work. We need — more work needs to be done, Peter,” Jean-Pierre answered. “We put forth a comprehensive immigration legislation, and Congress — Republicans in Congress refuse to act” [1].

“And so, the President has used the tools that he has in front of him to — to prepare ahead of Title 42 lifting,” she said. “As you know, that is happening in the next couple of days” [1]. The legislation she meant was the immigration plan Biden sent Congress at the start of his term; the next day she said that “on the first day of this administration, he put forth a comprehensive immigration plan” [8].

The COVID-era expulsion order ended nine days later, at 11:59 p.m. Eastern on May 11 [3].

”It Is My Testimony That the Border Is Secure”

Doocy’s premise came straight from the top of the Department of Homeland Security. Thirteen days before the briefing, Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told the House Homeland Security Committee: “It is my testimony that the border is secure, and we are working every day and night to increase its security. The challenges that we are experiencing at the border cannot be overstated” [4].

The Pentagon confirmed the deployment the same day Doocy asked about it: 1,500 active-duty troops from the Army and Marine Corps, set to begin arriving May 10 and to stay for 90 days [5]. At the May 4 briefing, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said the troops would not “participate in law enforcement activities” and would handle “administrative tasks, helping with logistics and sustainment” [6].

”Where Did That Number Come From?”

Doocy then went after a number Jean-Pierre had used the day before. On May 1, she credited the president’s “parolee program” and said, “when it comes to illegal migration, you’ve seen it come down by more than 90 percent, and that’s because of this act- — the actions that this President has taken” [7].

“You said yesterday that, when it comes to illegal migration, you’ve seen it come down by more than 90 percent. Where did that number come from?” Doocy asked. As Jean-Pierre tried to cut in, he continued: “CBP is telling us the number is — 136,000 people — more this fiscal year so far” [1].

“If the dramatics could come down just a little bit —” Jean-Pierre said.

“What’s dramatic about asking a question about —” Doocy replied [1].

Jean-Pierre then explained that she had been “speaking to the parolee program,” which the president created to deal with migrants from certain countries. “The data has shown us that it has gone down by more than 90 percent. That was what I was speaking to,” she said [1]. When Doocy tried to follow up, she cut him off: “We’re moving, Peter. Let’s go” [1].

’I Can’t Say What It’s Going to Look Like’

The questions kept coming that week. On May 3, a reporter asked whether the administration felt ready for what might come once the COVID-era restrictions expired. Jean-Pierre said the troops would handle “administrative task, data — data entry,” and she stressed: “They will not be engaging with the migrants. So I just want to be clear about that” [8]. She again put the onus on Congress: “Republicans need to stop doing a political stunts and need to come to the table” [8].

On May 4, a reporter cited “massive strain at border facilities and especially in the Rio Grande Valley” and asked how confident the president was in his fixes. “Look, I can’t say what it’s going to look like after — after May 11th,” Jean-Pierre said. “But what I can say is that this is an administration that has taken the challenges that we see at the border very seriously since day one” [6].

By the Numbers

97 percent: the drop DHS reported in encounters of Cuban, Haitian, Nicaraguan and Venezuelan nationals between ports of entry, from a seven-day average of 1,231 on Jan. 5, 2023, to 35 on Jan. 31. That is the program figure Jean-Pierre was citing, and it covered those four nationalities, not illegal migration overall [9].
128,410: southwest border encounters between ports of entry in January 2023, which DHS called the lowest monthly total since February 2021 [9].
98,850: Border Patrol encounters between ports of entry in the first 11 days of May 2023, before Title 42 lifted [3].
204,561: total southwest border encounters in May 2023, the month Title 42 ended [3].
70,394: Border Patrol encounters between ports of entry from the end of Title 42 through May 31, 2023 [3].
2.47 million: migrant encounters at the southern border in fiscal 2023, a record [10].
302,034: southwest border encounters in December 2023, the highest month ever recorded [11].

What Happened Next

Mayorkas’ “secure” testimony came back to haunt him. On Feb. 13, 2024, the House impeached him 214-213, making him the first sitting Cabinet secretary ever impeached. One of the two articles accused him of breaching the public trust by lying to Congress and saying the border was secure [12]. The Democratic-led Senate killed both articles on April 17, 2024, without holding a trial [13].

In June 2024, five months before the election, Biden signed Proclamation 10773, “Securing the Border.” It suspended entry once the seven-day average of encounters hit 2,500 a day and lifted the restrictions only after the average fell below 1,500 [14].

Then the White House changed hands. For fiscal 2025, DHS and CBP reported 237,565 Border Patrol apprehensions, the fewest since 1970, and said 72% of that total came during the last 111 days of the Biden administration, Fox News reported [15].

For more of Jean-Pierre’s answers checked against the record, including her claims about Border Patrol hiring and the Eagle Pass drownings, see our Karine Jean-Pierre record page.