fresh in people's minds, and there just frankly aren't a whole lot of republicans who think this is good policy or certainly aren't good politics, i don't think there's a whole lot of appetite for taking on that kind of thing right now. thanks to all of you. and that does it for this edition of andrea mitchell reports. "chris jansing reports" starts right now. good day, i'm chris jansing live at msnbc headquarters in new york city. midnight will mark the end of one controversy and the start of another. thousands of migrants crowded the border eager to see the end of title 42. u.s. authorities insisting it's not that easy. we're expecting to hear from the man in charge, dhs secretary alejandro mayorkas in just a few minutes. plus, reading between the

lies. donald trump lays out a platform for his re-election run, but can he get voters to focus on 2024 if he's still clinging to his lies about 2020? and the u.s. military going to war with a republican senator whose actions they say is putting u.s. national security at risk. we'll explain that coming up. but we start a little more than ten hours away from the 11:59 p.m. deadline, that's when title 42 expires and with it the ability for dhs to swiftly expel migrants at the border under that covid era health policy. we are keeping a close eye on the white house because any minute now secretary mayorkas will take that podium and outline the administration plans for the road ahead. already, though, hundreds of active duty u.s. troops are monitoring the situation at the border with more expected to come later this month. this policy shift exposing the broken immigration system and

the deepened political divisions that continue to block reform on capitol hill. this influx of migrants continues to escalate as local, state, and federal officials are sounding an alarm. the border patrol chief tells nbc news that right now there are as many as 65,000 people in the northern regions of mexico looking into the u.s. one is this 24-year-old jamaican immigrants who says he just wants a better future. >> we flee the country because of violence, and we came here to the border, so we came here to try to seek a better life, but it seems like it didn't working. i'm just trying to seek a better life. i'm not a bad person. i'm not a violent person. >> just wants a better life. from the u.s. mexico border, i want to bring in the host of the 11:00 hour on msnbc reports, josé diaz-balart who's in el paso, texas. also with us, former rnc chairman and msnbc analyst,

michael steele. so jose, we got new numbers from two dhs officials who just told nbc news that u.s. customs and border patrol apprehended a little over 11,000 people yesterday holding steady with tuesday's record setting numbers. what's the sense on the ground there before title 42 is set to expire just hours from now? >> reporter: these record numbers are going to increase, if anything, and i say hello to you this morning from el paso, texas. i want to show you where we are. this is the sacred heart church in el paso that has been receiving migrants. i want to walk over here and show you if i could just how close we are to the border, just about two blocks from where i am is the del norte bridge, one of the bridges that connects el paso to see ciudad.

there has been so much flow of people to and from these two cities. that's something that has traditionally been a reality here, but the number, chris, of people who are coming to request asylum with the dream of having a life in the united states is not going to diminish anytime soon. and every single story is a story of human tragedy. i mean, i just spoke with mari marina, she came from venezuela. it took her one month to get from venezuela to here in el paso. she came with her husband, their daughter, and their granddaughter. they knew that it was going to be a difficult and dangerous journey, but they had no idea just how difficult and dangerous it would turn out to be. i spoke with her last night at one of the rescue missions here

that has been having her and her daughter and her granddaughter, the husband, even though they came through the united states together was separated. the husband was told just last night that he was going to be deported. she now has to take the decision of what to do with her child and her grand daughter. haers here's part of our conversation. >> you feel as though you're living in a dream and that i can't wake up? i'm dreaming awake, i haven't been able to sleep well. i haven't been -- my nightmares, everything is a nightmare. that's why i say i haven't woken up from this nightmare. what i have is a nightmare. how are you going to say good-byes? god will give me the strength.

at least i know that my granddaughter will have a better future here and one day, one day we'll be able to see each other again. >> so the mother is planning to be reunited with her husband, and she says if she has to be deported along with them, even though her process is in place here, she will do that with the dream and the hope that one day they could be reunited, chris. >> i don't know what 1-year-old baby and you just hope that something, anything can relieve those nightmares for them. nbc's guad venegas meantime is in san diego. guad, what are you hearing from people on the other side of the border from tijuana? >> reporter: a surge of migrants at the san diego tijuana border that is now becoming a humanitarian crisis. in the last few days hundreds

have shown up. a border patrol officials telling us their facilities are full. they're at capacity, so they cannot take the individuals that have crossed that first barrier from tijuana into san diego and stopped before the second barrier to turn themselves in. border patrol has taken some children, women, and families, also those that are sick, have been picked up by emts, but most of them have remained here for days because simply there isn't enough space for the processing. we know that authorities are doing what they can to process migrants as fast as possible as the lifting of title 42 approaches, and meanwhile, organizations in san diego are also preparing to receive the migrants that will be allowed to remain in the united states under that asylum-seeking process. migrants that will require transportation to go to cities where their sponsors will receive them, these are sponsors, people that they know in the u.s. that will help them remain, and others that have left their countries for humanitarian reasons and will need the help of organizations to find a place to stay while in

the united states. it's a coordinated effort to try to solve this humanitarian crisis while hundreds continue sleeping here, women and children with cold nights and hot days as the numbers grow here at the u.s./mexico border. back to you. >> guad, thank you so much. for the decades you've been in politics, the decades i've been in journalism, this is a recurring nightmare over and over again. what do we do in a moment like this? the cracks this our system so exposed, legislative solutions seem to impossible, what do we do? >> so you asked the most important question, and the only answer i can muster right now is what we see is being done, virtually nothing. this is the part that so astounds me about how government works, whether it's in democrat control or republican control. we didn't see this coming. we didn't know title 42 was

expiring. we had no idea that given the trend lines that have been reported on this network and other networks that have been written about what was happening at the border, from the beginning of the biden administration, during the trump administration, and so here we're sitting watching a humanitarian crisis unfold before our very eyes and everyone's acting like, well, how did that happen? we know how it happened. our government is wholly inept at even getting in a room and having a discussion because everybody wants to score a political point against the other. meanwhile, you have children and families that are being upended, unnecessarily so. i mean, it's the same thing with our debt discussion. we know the country's debt is at a crisis point, and yet we still have washington sitting around acting like, well, it's your fault. no, it's your fault. so this story is no different from any other, and i'm honestly at a loss for how you begin to

turn that corner to get the people we elected to do something. the only resort we have as citizens is to do one of two things, retreat from it and pretend we don't see it, right, or unelect the people who are creating this problem by doing nothing. and i just don't know where the country's going to fall down on this because all this right now, chris, is going to be political noise for the right to say, oh, look at biden screwing up the border and people, you're being overrun and playing basically the ethnicity and the outside, you know, aspect of this against americans by, you know, scaring them into believing these people are overrunning their communities, and then, you know, the democrats are going to be sitting there complaining about what the republicans are saying. >> yeah. >> meanwhile, here are your images, america. this is what's happening right now, and we have people who can do something about it and don't,

and that includes the governors of florida and the governors of texas who actually use this as a political tool against the very people we should be helping. >> yeah, ron desantis just signed one of the strictest immigration bills in the country earlier this week. let me go back to you, jose. you're also somebody who has been covering this for literally for decades, and i'm not going to get the image of that little i guess 1-year-old who you were with coloring out of my head because her future depends on this, where will it go? what will it look like? and you know, we just heard from michael talking about one, two possibilities here. the third thing that we think we should note, and i'd love to hear from you about it, is all the people who are running organizations, non-governmental organizations, charitable organizations, church organizations who are overwhelmed trying to deal with this, trying to help these folks in this terrifying situation,

the great unknown out there. talk about that and how are they holding up? >> reporter: well, and chris, thinking about what michael was saying just about how this is not something that just started 24 hours ago. and we have organizations that are here. this group called el pasoens fighting for hunger. you have another group, lulac that is here right now holding a press conference outside talking about the need for federal assistance to be increased and increased immediately. but thinking about what michael was saying, you know, this is something that's been happening for decades, and now it's gotten to a point where it's just do you just look away, and at times, you know, here there are people that are sleeping by the hundreds in the streets. we saw it last december when we were here, and then just as

these events unfold, the people are moved out, but when the cameras are gone, it comes back to just a critical point, and these are men, women, and children like that little 1-year-old girl, and i'm just thinking, you know, does it not -- does this not -- is this just how we're going to be? and michael, your point, you know, is there not just -- i was just thinking in 2013 the gang of eight in the senate proposal, immigration comprehensive immigration reform. there hasn't been comprehensive immigration reform in this country since 1986 when reagan was president. michael, i think the proposal of 2013 that passed in the senate but didn't pass in the house, that proposal would not be acceptable to either side now. not just to one side. >> nope. >> to either side now. >> and so that's where we are. we're going to continue to talk about this throughout these two hours. josé diaz-balart, thank you for

your great reporting down there. michael steele, you're going to stick around. former president trump lashing out at critics and the truth during a town hall. what his comments reveal about what another trump presidency could look like. that in 60 seconds. that in 60 ss >> woman: why did we choose safelite? >> vo: for us, driving around is the only way we can get our baby to sleep, so when our windshield cracked, we needed it fixed right. we went to safelite.com. there's no one else we'd trust. their experts replaced our windshield, and recalibrated our car's advanced safety system. they focus on our safety... so we can focus on this little guy. >> singers: ♪ safelite repair, safelite replace. ♪ [♪♪] if you have diabetes, it's important to have confidence in the nutritional drink you choose. try boost glucose control®. it's clinically shown to help manage blood sugar levels and contains high quality protein to help manage hunger and support muscle health.

try boost® today. want a worry-free way to kill bugs? zevo traps use light to attract and trap flying insects with no odor and no mess. they work continuously, so you don't have to. zevo. people-friendly. bug-deadly. buried under a litany of lies, all straight from his play book, donald trump did something else as well last night at the town hall. he told us what to expect if there's a second trump administration, how we would handle things like abortion, the war in ukraine, the economy, and immigration, and beyond the politics personality. that stayed the same meaning there was also a healthy dose of insults starting with the woman who had just beaten him in court, e. jean carroll. >> they found -- >> say what -- they did -- they said he didn't rape her. >> they did not say --

>> i didn't do anything else either because i have no idea who the hell she is. i have no idea who the hell -- she's a whack job. >> mr. president -- that's the question that investigators have, i think, is why you held onto those documents when you knew the federal government was seeking them and then had given you a subpoena to return them. >> are you ready? are you ready? can i talk? >> yeah, what's the answer? >> do you mind? do you mind? >> i would like for you to answer the question. that's why i asked it. >> it's very simple -- >> you're a nasty person i tell you. >> i mean, that's the kind of drama that voters got tired of in 2020, and the man who beat him then, president biden tweeted as soon as the town hall was over, he asked voters a simple question. do you want four more years of that? before we get to that conversation, alejandro mayorkas has taken to the podium at the white house. let's listen in. >> not to provide us with the resources we need and that we requested. our efforts within the

constraints of our broken immigration system are focused on ensuring that the process is safe, orderly and humane all while protecting our dedicated work force and our communities. i want to be very clear, our borders are not open. people who cross our border unlawfully and without a legal basis to remain will be promptly processed and removed. . an individual who is removed under title 8 is subject to at least a five-year ban on reentry into the united states and can face criminal prosecution if they attempt to cross again. smugglers have been long hard at work spreading false information that the border will be open. they are lying. to people who are thinking of making the journey to our southern border, know this. smugglers care only about

profits, not people. do not risk your life and your life savings only to be removed from the united states if and when you arrive here. our approach to build lawful, safe, and orderly pathways for people to come to the united states and to impose tougher consequences on those who choose not to use those pathways works. president biden has led the largest expansion of lawful pathways in decades. people are from cuba, haiti, venezuela, and nicaragua have arrived through lawfully available pathways and we reduce border encounters from these groups by 90% between december of last year and march of this year. we are launching new and expanded patrol processes for nationals of colombia, cuba, el

salvador, guatemala, haiti and honduras, and increasing use of a mobile app for individuals to schedule appointments at our ports of entry. to those who do not use our available lawful pathways, we will deliver tougher consequences using our immigration law authorities. the new rule finalized yesterday presumes that those who do not use lawful pathways to enter the united states are ineligible for asylum. it allows us, the united states to remove individuals who do not establish a reasonable fear of persecution. eligible families will be placed in expedited removal proceedings, and those that receive a final negative fear determination will generally be removed within 30 days of being placed in those proceedings. we began planning in 2021 for

the end of title 42, just a few highlights. in addition to securing the first increase in border patrol agent hiring in more than a decade, we are in the process of surging personnel to the border including over 1,400 dhs personnel, 1,000 processing coordinators and an additional 1,500 department of defense personnel. we are delivering tougher consequences for unlawful entry. during the first half of this fiscal year, we returned, removed, and expelled more than 665,000 people. we are conducting dozens of removal flights each week, and we continue to increase them. just yesterday we worked with the mexican government to expel nearly 1,000 venezuelans who did not take advantage of our available lawful pathways to enter the united states. we are bolstering the capacity of local governments and ngos.

last week we announced the distribution of an additional $332 million to support communities along the southern border and in the interior of our country. and we are going after the smugglers, leading an unprecedented law enforcement disruption campaign that has led to the arrest of more than 10,000 smugglers who mislead and profit from vulnerable migrants. the united states is also working closely with regional partners to impose stiffer consequences at our border, expand lawful pathways for orderly migration and coordinate enforcement efforts. this includes mexico announcing for the first time ever they will accept the return of nationals of cuba, haiti, nicaragua and venezuela so we can continue the parole processes that have been so successful in reducing migration from those countries. it includes working with

colombia and panama to launch a historic anti-smuggling campaign to target criminal networks that prey on migrants, and it includes dramatically scaling up the number of removal flights we can operate to countries throughout the hemisphere including colombia, peru, and ecuador. we are a nation of immigrants and a nation of laws. we are doing everything possible to enforce those laws in a safe, orderly and humane way. we are working with countries throughout the region addressing a regional challenge with regional solutions. we again -- yet again call on congress to pass desperately needed immigration reform and deliver the resources clear authorities and modernize processes that we need.

>> good afternoon. >> i have two questions. one is how do you decide which nationalities are going to be able to use the legal pathways, for example the venezuelans, how did you decide who was allowed to avail themselves of legal pathways and who isn't on that particular -- >> the parole programs -- yes, so what we did is we met the need with the parole programs that was the demographic that was causing us the greatest challenge at our southern border and we tailored our parole processes accordingly. >> is it possible those nationalities could shift as you see shifting nationalities at the border? >> so we have shifted our programs according to the needs that we need to meet so you'll recall perhaps that in november we developed the parole process for venezuelans. that was then the most

significant challenge. we pivoted in january to not only expand the program for venezuelans, but also expand it for cubans, haitians, and nicaraguans, so we will meet the moment. >> and then on overcrowding, if the border patrol facilities are overcrowded and some migrants have to be released, does that send the very message you're trying to avoid, which is that people will be released into the interior. >> i have to say two things in response. number one we cannot overstate the extraordinary heroism of the united states border patrol and homeland security that are managing through an extraordinary challenge and doing so successfully. number one. number two, it is very important to understand that the great majority of people will be removed if they do not qualify for relief under the laws of the united states. >> thank you very much, secretary mayorkas.

you talked about all the personnel you're surging to the border. you didn't mention fema personnel and the mayors and county judges in border towns that we've spoken to say that what they really need is not just fema dollars but fema personnel themselves to house and feed these migrants as your department releases them. why not send fema personnel to the border the way you would in any other emergency? >> well, the deployment of fema personnel is specific to a particular type of emergency, an emergent event. this is an ongoing challenge that quite frankly has vexed this country for decades because this country has been unable, congress has been unable to pass immigration reform that everyone agrees and understands is desperately needed. we are working with an immigration system that was last reformed in the 1990s. migration has changed

dramatically since then, and we need our laws updated. >> so are you saying that basically your hands are tied and you can't send fema personnel even if you wanted to? >> i'm not saying that at all. our fema personnel are coordinating with local communities and cities across the country to provide them with the information they need, and fema is going to be playing a pivotal role in our shelter and services program that is poised to distribute $363 million to cities and communities in need of funding. >> i'm wondering about your communications with foreign countries, have you had conversations in the last couple of days or so with any foreign government officials ahead of this lifting? >> so i should take a step back and say when i speak of the fact that it is a regional challenge for which regional solutions are needed, let me put a finer point on that. there are approximately 20

million displaced people throughout our hemisphere. the challenge that we are encountering at our southern border is by no means unique to the southern border of the united states, and i have learned that powerfully, not only through the information and analysis that we undertake in the united states government, but in our conversations with our foreign partners, just this week i spoke with the foreign secretary of panama. last week i spoke with the president of guatemala. three weeks ago i was in panama to speak with the panamanian foreign minister and the colombian foreign minister. we are engaged and of course secretary blinken is leading the diplomatic engagements. diplomacy is a key pillar of our effort. >> the question is i want to focus in on black migrants from

africa and the caribbean nations, who has met with president biden on this issue and other civil rights leaders said that the lifting of title 42 suppresses black asylum seekers who are required to ask for asylum in countries they transit through. many of those countries are too dangerous for black migrants to request asylum, and she gives the example of the african americans who travel to mexico, some were killed, they were thought to be haitian migrants. what do you say to that, and is there an effort, and what will you do to safety net or safeguard some of these black migrants who are trying to come now for asylum who are in countries or transiting through countries where they cannot ask for asylum through under the laws that the biden administration has put in place? >> so let me share with you one way in which migration has changed dramatically over the years. it is no longer the case that individuals can on their own reach the southern border of the

united states. they have to place their lives and their life savings in the hands of ruthless smugglers that exploit them and ruthlessly do so, and we have not only a security obligation but a humanitarian obligation to cut those smugglers out, and that is indeed what we are doing, and this president, president biden has rebuilt our refugee processing capabilities and has committed to a large number of refugee admissions to the united states. our president, president biden has expanded lawful pathways for migrants like no other president past, and what we are doing is we are extending an outstretched arm of humanitarian relief to reach people where they are so they do not have to place their lives in the hands of those smuggling organizations. >> but the southern border is

not just mexicans. it is haitians. it is africans as we've seen particularly with that issue with the haitians being whipped with the reins of the horses, but what is there -- >> well, let me just correct you right there, actually, the investigation concluded that the whipping did not occur. >> i'm sorry. i saw it differently. they were whipped with something from the horse, reins from a horse. maybe either the video or the picture was fixed but what i saw was totally different. i'm sorry. >> yeah, i'm going to leave you corrected. >> what happens, again, the mexican border is not just mexicans. it's africans and haitians. what is there in place as you hear from people who are advocates for immigrants to help those who are trying to seek asylum from places like haiti that has gangs. they can't even have an election because things are -- the

atrocities there are so great. >> so a few -- a few responses. number one, we have set up the cbp 1 app to enable people to make appointments and arrive at ports of entry safely if they qualify for exceptions under the public health authority of title 42, which of course is set to expire at 11:59 p.m. we have admitted approximately 740 people through that cbp 1 app per day. the majority of the individuals admitted have been haitian. we are expanding that cbp 1 app to reach as many as a thousand people a day, and we are setting up regional processing centers throughout the region working very closely with countries to the south, working with columbia

and others, and we expect to set up as many as 100 or more of those processing centers that will be open to people of all nationalities to obtain humanitarian relief. >> mr. secretary, thanks for being here. the president said this week that the situation on the southern border is going to be chaotic for a while. given the fact that you've had nearly two years to prepare for this moment, how can chaos be the expectation? >> well, i have said for months and months that the challenge at the border is and is going to be very difficult, and we have spoken repeatedly about the fact that that difficulty may only increase at this time of transition. it is going to take a period of time for our approach to actually gain traction and show results. and i've been very clear about that. the fundamental reason, the fundamental reason why we have a

challenge at our border and we've had this challenge many a time before is because we are working within the constraints of a broken, a fundamentally broken immigration system, and we also are operating on resources that are farless than those that we need and that we've requested. >> some of the measures that you have been talking about to put in place that mitigate this surge, some of those aren't even in place yet. it wasn't until two weeks ago that you announced these plans to open these regional processing centers. as far as i'm aware, they're not open yet. of the 1,500 troops that the president deployed, only 550 are actually on the ground, so given how long you have known that title 42 is ending on may 11th, why aren't all of these measures already in place? >> so we have implemented measures well before those few that you identify, our parole processes would be an example. while we deployed 1,500 additional department of defense personnel, we've had 2,500 department of defense personnel well in place already.

we have surged resources of all types over months and months, not just personnel but transportation facilities, technology, additional bed space, so we have been, in fact, not -- >> you've done all you can at this point? >> we have done all we can with the resources that we have and within the system that we are operating under. >> ask a couple of questions, mr. secretary. thanks for being here. on the cbp 1 app you were speaking about, migrants speaking to journalists including our reporters have indicated a series of frustrations. they say they're having trouble logging on, they're having trouble getting appointments, they're having trouble with language barriers, and they're seeing technical glitches right now. so what specifically is being done to fix that right now, and does that app provide false hope to these migrants coming that will only lead to future frustration and surges like we saw from venezuelans only a matter of months ago? >> so we have seen a tremendous

acceptance of the cbp 1 app. we are utilizing it very effectively as i referenced earlier in response to the reporter's prior question that 740 people per day are reaching our port of entry. those, by the way, are not individuals who have only made appointments but actually a fraction of the people who have made appointments using the cbp 1 app, it has proven successful. we have identified glitches and we've done so not unilaterally, exclusively, but also by speaking with individuals who have used the app, by speaking with migrants here in the united states who have reached the united states as well as actually going into mexico and meeting with migrants to understand the challenges, if i may, so we have addressed the challenges of which we are aware. the greatest challenge with respect to the cbp 1 app is not a technological challenge, but rather the fact that we have many more migrants than we have

the capacity to make appointments for. the greatest level of frustration is actually being able to make the appointment, not the utility of the cbp 1 app itself. that is, again, another example of a broken immigration system. >> foreign policy question, very broadly, quickly, the u.s. has sanctions right now on a series of foreign nations on cuba, on venezuela, on nicaragua, so does the biden administration's foreign policy make this situation worse? >> so i'm going to leave that to our foreign policy specialist, but i will say this, the predicate of those principles are separate and apart from the immigration channel that we're confronting. >> and we're going to try to get around to -- >> given the time you say this is going to take and based on what you are seeing now at the southern border and beyond in mexico, i wonder if you could offer some details, paint a picture, what should americans in those border communities and

beyond expect in the coming days and weeks? what's this going to look like for them? >> we could see very crowded, as we are now. we could see very crowded border patrol facilities. i cannot overstate the strain on our personnel and our facilities, but we know how to manage through such strain, as difficult as it will be, i have tremendous confidence and pride in our personnel. let me share with you an example of how we manage through a very difficult situation. in el paso, texas, we saw vinyls on the street. we engaged in a very sensitive and humane law enforcement operation to address that challenge, and we successfully have done so to the praise of the city of el paso. >> teams in el paso say that there are hundreds of migrants now in the open, with very limited access to food and water

and bathrooms for days. why aren't they being processed? is that what we can expect? >> so we are working very closely with nonprofit organizations, with community groups to really deliver a community response to the challenge. i cannot understate -- i'm sorry, i cannot overstate how much of a challenge it is going to be and how we all have to deal with it as one administration and one county. fundamentally, fundamentally, we need congress to act. >> mr. secretary, thank you for doing this. is this exclusively a challenge at the land border or are you also seeing an increase in migration by florida to california for that matter. and on the regional processing centers, i know that your staff has said that you'll have more

announcements on exactly coing days, but just to echo my colleague's point, did you want those to be ready ahead of the expiration of title 42, and can you give any details on exactly where this process will be. >> so with respect to maritime migration, a number of months ago we were experiencing pressure in the maritime environment, and we responded to that pressure with increased resources. it is incredibly perilous for individuals to take to the seas. the search and rescue operations that the united states coast guard has to undertake all too often to rescue people, those seas are rough, and the vessels that they use are extraordinarily flimsy, and we see death on the high seas, and so we our resources, our coast

guard resources, we also activated more robustly the reunification programs that give a lawful pathway for individuals to reach a country of safety. there was a second part to that question. >> i'm sorry, michael, trying to get as many people as i can. >> the regional processing centers. the regional processing centers, that's not something that the united states can set up unilaterally within a matter of weeks. this is a subject that requires diplomacy. we rely on our foreign partners, and it takes a great deal of partnering, not only with the partners themselves but also with the international organizations that are part of the fabric of international humanitarian relief. the united nations high commissioner for refugees, the international organization for

migration and others. >> thank you, mr. secretary. a bus of migrants from texas arrived in front of the vice president's house this morning. what's your response to that, to more buses of migrants being sent from texas to washington, d.c.? >> it is a both sad and tragic day when a government official uses migrants as a pawn for political purposes. >> thank you for being here. on the memo that the u.s. border patrol chief sent last night allowing for parole releases if overcrowding becomes an issue, that's not title 8 like you said would happen. these migrants don't get any alien registration number that would be used to track them. they're instead asked to self-report to i.c.e. within 60 days. you said at the beginning that you've prepared for this moment for almost two years, so why is part of that plan an honor system? >> oh, it is not an honor

system. what we do is we use the resources that we have to meet the challenges that we confront. this is a tool that has been used in the past. the vast majority of individuals will indeed be placed in expedited removal, and if they do not qualify will be removed in a matter of days, if not weeks from the united states. when we -- when we encounter a volume of individuals for which we need to address in a different way, we do so. if those individuals do not honor their commitment to surrender to an immigration and customs enforcement officer to be able to be placed in enforcement proceedings, they are a subject of our apprehension efforts. >> you said it would be a fraction of migrants this happens with. how many is a fraction when you've had almost 6 million

illegal crossings under this administration? >> we last year removed, returned, and expelled approximately 1.4 million individuals. that is the most in any one year. >> will you be on shaky legal ground, though, with mass releases? on a case by case basis? >> first of all, your question has a factual predicate with which i would disagree about mass releases, number one, but releases of individuals subject to an immigration enforcement proceedings is not something particular to this administration. >> case by case basis and this would not be on a case by case basis. >> we implement our operations in conjunction with the department of justice and we have confidence in the lawfulness of our actions. >> mr. secretary, are you concerned that the new asylum regulations will encourage more children to leave their families because unaccompanied kids are

exempt? >> no, we are not. it is an obligation for us to address the needs of unaccompanied children, so we are -- we do not have that concern, and what we are driving to, what we are fundamentally driving to is to build lawful pathways so people do not have to take -- have to make those difficult decisions and they don't have to take the dangerous journey first place, and we are expanding lawful pathways to an unprecedented degree under the president's leadership. >> mr. secretary, just one more, what is your assessment of mexico's enforcement of the border? >> we are working very closely with the government of mexico, the president has spoken with the president of mexico as recently as earlier this week. they have corresponded last week and mexico is taking very important enforcement measures that we greatly appreciate and that were taken in coordination

with us. >> yes, secretary, how is the administration redirecting the -- to prioritize new arrivals and will that affect the backlog that's already there for previous arrivals? >> so peter your question, if i may, just to hit this point once again, your question speaks of an immigration court backlog that exceeds 2 million cases. what a powerful example of a broken immigration system. not only are we surging asylum officers, about a thousand asylum officers to conduct credible fears screenings in the context of expedited removal, but the department of justice is surging immigration judges alongside us. >> if i could ask you about the -- >> sorry, peter. sorry, go ahead. >> the title 8 enforcement you're talking about, if you're trying to send a message, the critics of the administration would argue this is a message

you could and probably should have sent earlier on in the administration. how did you arrive at the idea that there should be a presumption of ineligibility, and why was that policy not announced earlier? >> so in response to your precise question, we sought to end title 42, the public health authority earlier. we sought to roll out our immigration enforcement authorities under title 8 of the united states code earlier. we were enjoined from doing so by a court. >> specifically the asylum policy, the presumption of inadmissibility why not come out with that sooner. you're trying to send that message now -- >> it's not a message. we don't promulgate a regulation. we don't promulgate a law to send a message. we promulgated a law to achieve a policy and operational outcome, and the outcome that we seek to achieve through this regulation is to incentivize people to take the lawful

pathways and disincentivize them to place their lives in the hands of ruthless smugglers. >> on the screen behind you as deterrents, new regulation directing migrants. >> that's not a message. that's an impact on human behavior. >>. >> thank you, secretary. first, have you ruled out family detention as an option? and then, two, you said that you have many more migrants than you have appointments for, so is there any effort to try to expand the appointments and do you have numbers for how many appointments are confirmed per day? >> so we are indeed expanding the use of cbp 1 app from approximately 740 arrivals at our ports of entry along the southern border to a thousand a day, and we are exploring what other capabilities we can add to that. and the first part of your question was family detention. this administration ended family

detention in march of 2021. >> you're not going to bring it back at all? >> we've made it clear that families who are in immigration enforcement proceedings including in expedited removal proceedings, a more accelerated immigration enforcement process will be alternatives to detention. the conditions of alternative to detention may be increased as the situation warrants. >> increased to what? >> so for example, we could place heads of household under curfews so that we are better able to monitor their activities and i should say their compliance with our restrictions and obligations to pear in court. >> go ahead. >> secretary -- >> could you orient me, sorry. >> mr. secretary, can you describe how you'll be treating any differently migrants at the

border that come from countries where we don't have close working relationship, for example, we've seen reporting of migrants coming as far from china, russia, syria, and then my second question i'm going to try to ask peter's question a different way with some democrats urging that president biden end sanctions on cuba and venezuela, do you support that? >> so the -- you speak of different demographics arriving at our southern border. this speaks to the fact that the challenge of migration is not exclusive to the southern border and it's, in fact, not exclusive to the western hemisphere. we are seeing a global displacement of people that is the greatest since at least world war ii. the challenge of encountering individuals from countries that are -- to which it's not easy to remove people has been a long standing challenge that our

immigration laws have run into. >> so what do you do with those people actually now? people who are coming from russia and china and so on, what do you do with them? >> so we place them in immigration enforcement proceedings and they make -- if they make a claim for relief, we adjudicate those claims, and if, in fact, those claims are granted, then they have under our laws a basis on which to stay in the united states. if they do not, then we work with foreign governments to address the enforcement actions that we think are appropriate. >> ending the sanctions, sir? >> that is a little bit outside the remit of today's discussion. >> way in the back. >> secretary, thank you. so you're talking about congress needing to act on this. any reaction to the immigration package that house republicans are looking to vote on today, and second question on the processing centers, was a mistake to not have them ready? >> can you repeat the second

part of that question. and i would say the president, president biden, presented congress with a legislative package on day 1 of this administration. now about 28 months ago. and we are hopeful that sensible and needed legislative reform will be passed by congress, and we do not concur with the bill that was presented today. >> the processing centers, specifically, though, was it a mistake to not have them ready in time to prevent a surge. >> as i have said, the development of those processing centers is a complex undertaking that requires the work of our foreign partners, international organizations, and the like and we move very swiftly. >> republicans repeatedly seek to paint the administration as being unable to secure the border. i wanted to ask, do you see this as a test?

does the administration see this as a test or possibly an opportunity to show the american people that the administration does have the ability to manage the border under difficult circumstances? >> we view this as a challenge. a challenge that we will meet. >> and may i also ask, in regards to the overcrowding in some of these difficult conditions, how long are we talking that this chaoticness will be? are we talking weeks, months, years before things take traction, and you get more of a handle on it? >> we are working as hard as we can to make sure that that time it takes is as little as possible. let me say an additional thing in response to your first question. this is a challenge, and we are going to meet this challenge. we're going to meet it within a broken immigration system while adhering to our values.

>> thank you, mr. secretary. last year there were some estimates from dhs officials putting the highest level of migrants coming across the border each day at 18,000 if title 42 is revoked. is that still the estimate or do you have a clearer number of what you're anticipating? >> let me clarify the number to which you refer. those weren't predictions. it is our responsibility in the department of homeland security and across the administration to plan for different scenarios. that's what we do. and so what we developed was, in fact, different scenarios to which we plan. and so we have done so and we continue to do so. >> you know, you talked about this being a challenging transition period, but how long do you expect a potential surge to last. are we talking weeks, months, longer? >> we have confidence in the approach that we are taking, which is to really present

lawful pathways for individuals to take advantage of and to disincentivize individuals from really placing their lives in the hands of smugglers. and let me share with you that the patrol processes that we announced and implemented on january 5th for cubans, haitians, nicaraguans and venezuelans are a proof point of our approach. we saw a tremendous demand to access those lawful pathways, and saw a 90% drop in the number of encounters of individuals from those four countries at our southern border and we saw that very very quickly. >> republicans have challenged you on this point on capitol hill, and i wanted to give you an opportunity to respond. you know, they point to border patrols own numbers which show going back to october of last year, there were more than a

million apprehensions, but then there were also more than 530,000 got aways, that's roughly the size of the population of the city of baltimore. how would you say that the border is not open? >> we removed, returned, and expelled 1.4 million people last year. ask those 1.4 million people if they think the border is open. our apprehension rate at the border is consistent with the apprehension rate in prior years. >> and then in el paso, they have declared -- >> thanks to the extraordinary work of the united states border patrol. >> in el paso, they have declared a state of emergency, and we have also seen this in other cities like new york and chicago. i'm wondering while so much of the focus is on the southern border itself, can you tell us more about the steps that dhs is taking to support those cities elsewhere and the surge effects, not just that geography, but

other cities and states across the country. >> i would say a number of things. number one, we're grateful to leader schumer and congress for the emergency food and shelter program funding in the omnibus this past december of $800 million. that's a significant increase over the prior year's funding of $150 million. we're working very closely with cities and communities along the border and in the interior of the united states. we need the system fixed. >> thank you. thank you, mr. secretary. back to the question of mass releases. i know you pushed back against that, but the florida attorney general has filed a lawsuit against you, alleging that you are about to conduct a policy of mass releases that is newspapers are released yesterday. what's your response to that and more broadly, what's your message to the judicial branch who is playing a role in this process? >> well, i don't send messages to the judicial branch. the judges make the decisions that they believe are warranted

under the facts and laws before them. but i will say this, it is interesting to see some of the tools that we employ that are successful or operationally needed to be challenged in the courts. so, for example, the parole process that we announced and implemented on january 5th, for cubans, haitians, nicaraguans and venezuelans, that was a reduction of over 95%, and yet, it's been challenged in a court and so our parole authority, when we use it to release a fraction of the people whom we count, and that is challenged, i question the motives of the plaintiffs. >> following up on the emergency food and shelter program that you just mentioned. groups in el paso that are

helping to feed and house migrants, they say this program has a problem and that can only be used to help migrants to counter dhs and been processed. is that realistic to the situation that these communities are based. >> it is necessary, and i should say this past friday, under the emergency food and shelter program, we distributed $332 million primarily to border communities. we now have under the new structure that the omnibus that congress equipped us with, we now have the shelter and services program that we in the department of homeland security will control. that will prove, i think, more nimble, and we, i think, have 363 -- >> the same restrictions can only be used for migrants in the process, so what about those who have not been processed? is there no way to help with addressing the humanitarian need there? >> so just to finish my thought, i think we have about

$363 million to distribute through the shelter and services program. and i believe that nongovernmental organizations in the cities address the needs of individuals who have not been processed. >> thank you so much. >> if you could raise your hand so i can orient visually. >> thank you, mr. secretary. they were saying here the republicans have changed the administration at the border. at the same time, some democrats are saying president biden broke his promise of having a more humane immigration system, and that he is finishing trump's job, so i ask you, how is it more humane to expel people and penalize them, people who are fleeing violence, poverty, you were just saying that the number of deportation was higher this

year of any year? >> let me just -- the words have legal significance, so an expulsion is what happens under the public health authority of title 42. we sought to end the application of title 42 some time ago. this administration stands markedly different than the prior administration, markedly different. we have, in fact, a family reunification task force that has now reunified, i think, more than 700 families that were cruelly separated by the prior administration. we have rescinded the public charge rule that punishes individuals who have migrated to the united states just for accessing public resources to which they are entitled. we have granted temporary protected status to quite a number of countries. this president has led the unprecedented expansion of lawful pathways. we stand markedly different