On a Tuesday episode of Fox News Channel’s “Your World,” Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas responded to concerns that exemptions for unaccompanied children in President Joe Biden’s immigration executive order could be exploited by cartels by saying, “We’re going to take it out on the cartels.”
host Neil Cavuto asked. [relevant exchange begins around 6:05] “[T]”There are some exceptions to this, such as unaccompanied children. This doesn’t mean we’ve given the drug cartels the green light to take advantage of it, which defeats the whole purpose of this for you, doesn’t it?”
“Absolutely not,” Mayorkas responded.
Cavuto then interjected, asking: “But who’s going to take care of these unaccompanied children? If they’re allowed into the country, we’re not going to send them back or anything like that. So where are they going to go?”
Mayorkas responded: “Neil, we follow our values and treat unaccompanied children humanely. We stop illegal immigration, we build legal pathways, and we have programs for minors.”
Cavuto then interjected: “But doesn’t this encourage drug cartels to take advantage of children?”
Mayorkas responded: “Neil, we are taking on drug cartels with unprecedented force through our Transnational Criminal Investigations Unit and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.”
Cavuto interjected, asking, “No, this is actually a green light for the cartels. Aren’t you afraid that this is actually going to be a green light?” [they’ll] “Oh, guys, we can use these kids as pawns to get what we want.”
Mayorkas responded: “Neil, let me be clear: cartels and smuggling rings are evil. They exploit vulnerable individuals of all kinds. We will get tough on the cartels. We have excluded unaccompanied children from this asylum ban because the humanitarian case they present is compelling. We will uphold our values while taking tough enforcement action, as we have done in the past.”
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