During the exchange, correspondent Rosa Flores also brought up the rapes and kidnappings of migrant women who are seeking asylum.
“I’ve interviewed women in Mexico who really just wanted to seek asylum in the United States, but they were expelled under Title 42 back to Mexico,” Flores said in a clip that was tweeted by CNN This Morning on Friday. “And once there, after that, they were kidnapped. They were raped. And these are not isolated cases.”
Flores then mentioned the “thousands of cases” of violence faced by migrants who have similarly been expelled under Title 42 during Democratic President Joe Biden’s time in office. The rule essentially lets authorities skip an official asylum process to send migrants back over the border. It was invoked during the pandemic by former President Donald Trump as officials sought to slow the spread of COVID-19.
Last month, the U.S. Supreme Court allowed Title 42 to stay in place for now, giving Biden some respite from criticism leveled by many within his own party.
CNN’s Flores pressed Mayorkas about Biden-era migrant expulsions under the rule.
“My question to you is: What is the U.S. government doing to prevent such violent acts on individuals who are simply just trying to come to the United States and seek asylum?” she asked.
Mayorkas answered that it’s why government officials “are trying to build the safe and orderly pathways” to the country. He added that they’re hoping to save migrants from the trauma they face at the hands of smugglers, also citing the Biden administration’s crackdown on “smuggling organizations” and the completion of some 7,000 arrests.
“You and I have both seen too much tragedy on the border,” Mayorkas continued. “It’s precisely why we’re trying to build [the] safe and lawful pathways that we announced yesterday, and that we’ve been implementing since day one.”
Still, the secretary stopped short of answering pointed questions from CNN This Morning co-anchor Poppy Harlow about whether the events unfolding at the border could be classified as a “crisis.” He did, however, call it a “regional challenge,” adding that the president is leading “regional leaders in addressing it.”
In February 2020, amid a border clampdown, Reuters reported that many Central American migrants attempting to enter the U.S. wound up getting raped, kidnapped and trafficked in Mexico. Nearly 80 percent of migrants located in one Mexican border city told a medical charity that they’d been a victim of violence within the first nine months of 2019.
On Thursday, Biden himself admitted that he doesn’t like Title 42 while speaking about border security expansions under the policy. Such remarks come on the heels of last year’s spike in migrants, and as Republican governors—including Greg Abbott of Texas—have directed buses to drop off asylum seekers in left-leaning areas.
The homeland security department, meanwhile, has vowed to continue prepping for Title 42’s eventual end, at once promising to improve border safety as well as order for the migration process.
“We can provide humanitarian relief consistent with our values, cut out vicious smuggling organizations, and enforce our laws,” Mayorkas said in a statement on Thursday. “Individuals without a legal basis to remain in the United States will be subject to prompt expulsion or removal.”
Newsweek reached out to DHS for comment.
