On Thursday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “Special Report,” Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) stated that he disagrees with DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas that the U.S. has operational control of the border and maintained that the border is “not secure.”
After playing clips of Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz saying that the U.S. doesn’t have operational control of the border and Mayorkas claiming that the U.S. does have operational control, host Bret Baier asked, “Are you concerned that the DHS is missing the moment on the border?”
Kelly responded, “At times. I work very closely with Secretary Mayorkas, CBP, DHS. The border’s a crisis. And it’s been a crisis for my entire time in office. Sometimes, it gets a little bit better. I was on the phone a couple of days ago with the Mayor of Yuma, Doug Nicholls, the numbers are a little bit better, but they’re still way too high. And it’s a real challenge for Border Patrol and CBP to do their jobs, to secure our southern border. It’s not secure.”
Baier then asked about the differing statements from the Border Patrol and DHS.
Kelly answered, “In this case, I would agree with the Border Patrol Chief. My attitude about this is to listen to the professionals, listen to the Border Patrol agents, the guys on the ground who have to deal with this every single day. And what they’ll tell you is that, in some places, we need barriers, we need [a] border wall. And in the case of these gaps in the border wall, I was able to successfully work with DHS and work with the administration and now we’re closing these gaps.”
Later, Kelly argued that changes made by the Biden administration to the asylum process have improved the situation, but it’s “still a crisis. And we’ve got more to do.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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