Mayorkas on the Cost of Illegal Immigration: 'I Believe I Have Addressed Your Question' (May 11, 2023)

On May 11, 2023, hours before the pandemic-era Title 42 public health order expired, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas joined Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre at the White House briefing. “Tonight at 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time, the pandemic-era Title 42 public health order will end,” he said, and migrants arriving after midnight “will be presumed ineligible for asylum and subject to steeper consequences for unlawful entry, including a minimum five-year ban on reentry and potential criminal prosecution” [1]. Near the end of the briefing, a reporter asked what the influx since January 2021 had cost taxpayers. This video shows Mayorkas’s answer. Quotes are from the official transcript published by the American Presidency Project [1].

Key Moments

”Do you have a taxpayer cost?”

“So, you talked about cost,” the reporter began. “What’s the rough cost to American taxpayers since the roughly 4 million people have come into this country illegally, since January of 2021? As those people show up in community hospitals, as they enter the school system, as they get other government help — do you have a taxpayer cost?” [1]

“Let me turn that question around a little bit”

“Let me turn that question around a little bit, because I’m going to turn it around to match the question that an international partner asked of me,” Mayorkas answered. “And the question that the international partner asked of me is, ‘What is the economic cost of your broken immigration system?’ Since there are businesses around this country that are desperate for workers, there are desperate workers looking for jobs in — desperate workers in foreign countries that are looking for jobs in the United States where they can earn money lawfully and send much-needed remittances back home. What is the cost of a broken immigration system? That is the question that I am asked, and that is the question that I pose to Congress, because it is extraordinary” [1].

”I believe I have addressed your question”

“But do you have — do you have the cost that the taxpayers are paying now?” the reporter asked again. “I — I believe I have addressed your question,” Mayorkas said, and Jean-Pierre moved to the final questions [1].

”The border is closed”

The next reporter noted that “for years, the administration has said that the border is closed, and migrant crossings continue to notch records,” and asked what it would take for the administration’s message to migrants to land. Mayorkas blamed “the smuggling organizations that spread disinformation to vulnerable migrants. They lie to migrants,” and said the department had just announced “an extraordinary digital campaign to amplify that messaging.” Asked how many of 10,000 migrants caught in a day would be detained, released or removed, he said: “we have already encountered 10,000 individuals in a single day. You know, so we already have proven that we can manage through that” [1].

Background: The End of Title 42

In his opening remarks, Mayorkas said the department had “surged 24,000 Border Patrol agents and officers; thousands of troops, contractors; and over a thousand asylum officers and judges” for the transition back to standard immigration law, known as Title 8. “We expected to see large numbers of encounters initially. We are already seeing high numbers of encounters in certain sectors,” he said. “This places an incredible strain on our personnel, our facilities, and our communities with whom we partner closely.” He blamed the situation on “Congress leaving a broken, outdated immigration system in place” [1]. Shortly before the taxpayer question, he also contrasted the administration with its predecessor: “We stand markedly different than the prior administration. We do not resemble it at all” [1].

The Record

Did he answer the question? No. Mayorkas did not give a cost figure for the government’s spending on migrants who had arrived since 2021; he answered with a different question about the economic cost of the immigration system [1].
The surge that followed. Title 42 expired that night. Fiscal 2023 closed with a record 2.47 million migrant encounters at the southern border, Cronkite News reported [5], and December 2023 set a new monthly record of 302,034 encounters, the first month ever above 300,000, Fox News reported [6].

What Happened Next

Impeachment: On February 13, 2024, the House voted 214 to 213 to impeach Mayorkas for “willful and systemic refusal to comply with the law” in enforcing border policy and for breach of public trust, NPR reported [2]. “Never before has a sitting Cabinet secretary been impeached,” PBS NewsHour noted; the last Cabinet official impeached, President Ulysses S. Grant’s secretary of war, William Belknap, was impeached nearly 150 years earlier [4].
The Senate: On April 17, 2024, the Senate rejected both articles of impeachment, ending the trial; Democrats said the dispute was over policy and “did not rise to ‘high crimes and misdemeanors,’” while House Speaker Mike Johnson said “there should have been a full trial” [3].