Lankford to Mayorkas: 'I Was Shocked to See' a Cut in Detention Space as Asylum Hearings Stretch to 2033 (April 18, 2023)

Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., had read the Homeland Security budget, and one line stood out. “I was shocked to see, in your budget request, a reduction in request for new detention space, or to maintaining detention space,” he told Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. “While we have this incredible backlog in the non-detained docket, you are actually requesting fewer spaces when we have an acceleration in the number of people here. What am I missing?” [1]

“No. 1, we are not seeking a reduction in detention space,” Mayorkas answered. The money, he said, had been moved “in a contingency fund so that we could draw upon it if and when the number of encounters require additional detention of individuals” [1].

The video above shows the exchange from the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee’s April 18, 2023, hearing on the department’s budget. Quotes are from the official hearing record, Senate Hearing 118-213 [1].

”A New Strategy”

Lankford opened by noting how many plans he had heard. “We have talked about multiple times you have laid out different ideas, here is a new strategy we are going to have, here is a new strategy we are going to have. Each one has not slowed the flow down on it,” he said [1].

He asked when the newest one, a rule on asylum, would take effect. “Senator, we are adjudicating the comments that were received,” Mayorkas said. “It is our intention to promulgate a final rule, unless there are certain comments that dissuade us from doing so” [1].

”March 2033”

Lankford first laid out the backlog, using numbers from the department’s own budget documents. For migrants released with an order to report who asked to go to New York, he said, “currently right now their next hearing time in New York is in March 2033. It is 10 years before they get that hearing, and that is not the final adjudication of it” [1].

“We could be 15 to 18 years before their asylum claim is actually adjudicated,” Lankford said. “ICE has hearings set 10 years into the future to get to the first step of this process for them. This is clearly not working in the process” [1].

”A Surge Again”

Lankford pointed to Mayorkas’ own warning about the end of the Title 42 pandemic border policy. “Even your testimony earlier said you anticipate after Title 42 ends we will see a surge again of individuals,” he said. “Yet you have moved the detention dollars to a contingency fund to say we may or may not need those” [1].

“That is speaking of fiscal year 2024, not fiscal year 2023. We are hopeful that the measures that we are taking will diminish the number of encounters at our Southern Border,” Mayorkas replied [1].

Lankford had made his position plain: “But the detention numbers should be at epic levels, a historic number” [1].

”The Total Numbers Continue to Go Up”

Earlier in the round, Mayorkas touted a parole program for migrants from four countries. The January measures for “individuals originating from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela” had “led to a more than 95 percent drop in the number of encounters of individuals from those four countries at our Southern Border,” he said [1].

Lankford was not impressed. “But as you and I both know, the numbers continue to climb, total numbers. From those countries the numbers have dropped dramatically, but the total numbers continue to go up,” he said. “For this fiscal year, for just the six months of this fiscal year, it is about 160,000 higher than last year. Last year was 1 million more higher than the year before” [1].

He asked whether the system was broken. “Senator, yes, the asylum system is broken, and our entire immigration system is broken,” Mayorkas said [1].

Asked about the “credible fear” standard that lets migrants start asylum claims, he said it “needs to be reviewed in the context of reviewing the entire asylum system.” He said the time from a first credible-fear claim to a final decision “has historically been more than four years, and that reflects a broken system” [1].

By the Numbers

March 2033: the next New York hearing date Lankford cited for released migrants [1].
15 to 18 years: how long Lankford said an asylum claim could take [1].
160,000: how many more crossings Lankford said there were in the first six months of the fiscal year than the year before [1].
95%: the drop Mayorkas claimed for migrants from four countries in his parole program [1].
4 years-plus: the historical time from a credible-fear claim to a final asylum decision, according to Mayorkas [1].

What Happened Next

The rule came out before the surge. On May 16, 2023, DHS and the Justice Department published the “Circumvention of Lawful Pathways” rule “in anticipation of a potential surge of migration at the southwest border” after Title 42 ended, according to the Federal Register [2].

Trump ended the parole program Mayorkas praised. On March 25, 2025, the Trump administration’s DHS announced in the Federal Register that it “is terminating the categorical parole programs for inadmissible aliens from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela and their immediate family members” [3].

The House impeached Mayorkas. House Republicans impeached Mayorkas in February 2024. On April 17, 2024, the Senate voted 51-49 along party lines to dismiss the articles and adjourn the trial, Government Executive reported [4].

For Sen. Josh Hawley’s questioning of Mayorkas at the same hearing, see HYGO News’ page on migrant child labor.