"Face the Nation" on May 7, 2023
Interview
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Good morning, Margaret.
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Margaret, another horrific tragedy in our country.
I spoke with the governor last night, as well as the mayor. The matter is still under investigation.
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No, Margaret, I think it's -- it's under investigation. The state and local authorities are leading that investigation.
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You know, Margaret, we've been preparing for this for more than a year-and-a-half. You are correct.
And it is indeed a regional challenge. And it requires a regional response, which is why we are working so closely with many countries to the south. It's going to take our plan a while to really take hold, for people to understand that they can access lawful, safe, orderly pathways before they reach the border.
And, quite frankly, if they come to the border, they will receive a consequence under our enforcement authorities.
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So, we are furthest along with Colombia. It should be a matter of weeks.
But we also have additional lawful pathways that already have existed for people to access the...
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Yes, the parole program for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans.
We are expanding our family reunification programs.
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Well, they will be dispersed as operational needs require.
And so the deployment of active-duty troops is not to do enforcement work, not to interact with the migrants, but to provide other support so that our border patrol agents can be out in the field.
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Well, I respectfully disagree with the senator and the governor. Number one, we are prepared.
As we noted at the very beginning of our conversation, we've been preparing for this for quite some time. We tried to end Title 42 repeatedly and were -- were stopped from doing so by the courts, so we are prepared, number one.
Number two, we have a migration information center that is specifically set up to communicate with state and local officials. And we have been doing so. We are using our FEMA regional coordinators as our key points of contact.
I spoke with Senator Sinema, I think, within the last two weeks, and our personnel are in touch with other officials on a regular basis.
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I do not. And if there is a question that has been unanswered, we will answer it. I will tell you, though, let's take a step back because there's a very important message, not to communicate only to Senator Sinema, but to all senators and all members of the House of Representatives.
We need immigration reform. Everything that the Department of Homeland Security is doing, everything that our partners across the federal government are doing, is within a broken immigration system. The president passed to Congress a proposal to fix our broken immigration system on the first day in office.
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Margaret, we have been pushing for immigration legislation since day one. And, by the way, it didn't start on day one. This is a decades-long problem.
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The immigration system hasn't been fixed since the '90s.
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I -- I -- Margaret, I just respectfully disagree. I spoke with Leader Schumer also within the last two weeks. We are in constant communication.
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We -- we are constantly -- there is -- there is not a day that goes by that we are not urging Congress to pass reform.
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Title 42 and the expulsion authority is a public health authority.
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It is not an immigration authority.
We will be using our immigration authorities, which call for a consequence regime, which is why we have to correct the lies that smugglers tell vulnerable migrants. They think they're coming and they'll be able to stay, and that is just unequivocally false.
And what I would say to the senators, Senators Tillis and Sinema, what we need is our system fixed...
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... not this Band-Aid solution.
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The administration is not ignoring it.
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We are -- we are pressing forward.
And, by the way, Senator Menendez, the Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, set forth a really thoughtful document with a number of pillars of action. And we have indeed implemented a number of those.
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Untrue. One team, one mission, and we are prepared to execute it.
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Thank you so much, Margaret.
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