'How Is It Inaccurate?': Tom Cotton Grills Mayokras On $450,000 Payments To Undocumented Migrants

might say that any senator seeking a second round needs to be physically president as senator lee is to make that request and so each of the staff members have 10 minutes to make sure that your member if interested in the second round is physically here senator cotton thank you mr chairman mr secretary on september 29th the national school board association wrote to the white house calling parents domestic terrorists for being concerned about their kid's school within a few days attorney general garland issued a directive to the department of justice and fbi to crack down not just on violent but what he called quote harassment and intimidation against school board administrators board members teachers and staff the school board association met with the white house and got tips from them on what to put in their letter before sending it we've also recently learned from an internal memorandum that the school board association uh quote as disruptions at school board meetings grow the association has been actively engaged with the department of homeland security uh has anyone from the department of homeland security met with anyone from the national school board association senator not that i'm familiar with and i don't know why that would fall within our jurisdiction did you see a copy of the attorney general's memorandum before it was released i i did not okay thank you um a few weeks ago it was reported the department of justice was in talks to give payments of up to 450 000 per person to illegal immigrants who were subject uh to enforcement of the zero tolerance policy during the last administration um have you or anyone at the department of homeland security been involved in those talks i have not and i am not aware of um anyone in the department who's been involved in the talks that is something within the province of the department of justice so so let me ask you this and let me be explicit i'm not talking about the lawsuits that are filed or the department of justice's litigation strategy or potential settlements who do you think is more deserving of cash payments from the united states government illegal migrants who cross our borders or the family of u.s soldiers who are killed in action senator i think if if i may you know the uh how i'll answer that question um i think that uh the families of those who lost their lives wearing our nation's uniform um are um our greatest responsibility as a nation so do i i can't do do you think that do you think it's it's shocking that illegal migrants could get up to four and a half times with the family senator of a service member killed in action senator if i if i may um i'm a lawyer by a profession so i don't and uh don't think it's advisable uh to render opinions on facts uh on cases the facts and circumstances of which i am not familiar because i know that the uh the cases that are before uh the department of justice uh to which you are referring our federal tort claims act where not all of those unlawfully present or filing suit against the government but those parents whose children were taken from them as a means of deterring irregular migration uh part of the zero tolerance policy of the prior administration the family separation uh policy uh that received bipartisan condemnation and quite frankly the condemnation of the american public what is an appropriate uh outcome of that litigation in response to the federal of the family separation policy the cruel policy is something i cannot opine on well i'm sure since you called the policy cruel let me ask you this um during the biden administration has the department of homeland security ever separated a single illegal alien from someone they claim as their child yes but not as part of the zero tolerance policy not as part of uh the family separation policy uh that was so cruel let me explain so okay so i understand what you're saying it's not part of the policy i'm sorry if i may say actually no you may not it's my time i'm sorry my time is limited so you've said that that the department of homeland security has done this during the bible administration you were the deputy secretary during the obama administration did the department of homeland security ever separate a single illegal alien from someone they claimed that was their child in the obama administration neither in the biden administration nor in the obama administration did we execute the zero tolerance policy that the trump administration promulgated and cruelly enforced i'd say that policies you've you've been implementing are complete tolerance for illegal migrants crossing our border uh let's turn our attention there how many illegal aliens crossing the country into the united states in 2020 i don't have the oh um i don't i have the numbers from uh cbp in front of me it's 458 000. how many illegal aliens have crossed into the united states in 2021 which i would note still has six weeks to go i believe the number um um taking out of that approximately 1.7 million the number of recidivists so in other words uh unique individuals approximately 1.3 1.4 million okay would be my estimate so i have 1.7 but that's fine so it's somewhere between um two and a half to four times as much no because the 1.7 million figure to which you refer senator includes recidivists okay so let's say it's 1.3 it's still two and a half times um are you satisfied that two and a half times as many illegal migrants have crossed in this country this year as compared to last year uh no i'm not but um uh worse is to promulgate and operationalize a policy that defies our values as a nation um how about that defies our sovereignty as a nation oh our sovereignty is um unflinching oh really because as it stands out the border anyone from anywhere in the world can simply show up and cross into this country i don't think that the um uh the hundreds of thousands of individuals who've been expelled under title 42 the cdc's authority would act well the 1.7 million have crossed here probably think so let me let me conclude with this what should be a higher priority of the united states government securing our border or giving amnesty to illegal aliens who are already here um uh senator of justice is our priority that includes securing our border and providing relief to those who qualify for it under our laws so so you refuse to prioritize whether we should try to protect our border from people crossing it who have zero right to be here or giving amnesty to the millions of people that are in this country illegally uh senator i i disagree wholeheartedly with the phrasing of your question uh it is um an inaccurate phrasing of our missions our responsibilities our challenges and our actions how how is it inaccurate i mean we have had 1.3 million by your own emission crossed just this year there are millions more in this country who are here illegally i'm simply asking you what is more important what's the higher priority of the united states government to protect our border or to give amnesty to those who are here illegally um senator we we do not have the authority nor the intention to give amnesty you testify that you wanted it though in your opening statement no would i what a pathway to citizenship legal status whatever you want to call it any kind of adjustment what's more important securing our border or giving some kind of adjustment to the legal status of those illegal aliens present in the country senator i consider those to be both very significant priorities because they are inextricably intertwined if in fact we can pass legislation that fixes once and for all our immigration system we will have addressed in a material apart the challenges at our border and it will advance our efforts to secure it well they're intertwined chiefly because the open borders that you and joe biden have permitted have attracted even more illegal immigrants here that means our borders more open than it ever has been thank you senator cotton senator lee we're on the second round questions three minutes thank you mr chairman mr secretary on some of these questions including the questions

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Keywords: Sen. Tom Cotton, Sec. Alejandro Mayorkas, Senate

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Length: 8min 33sec (513 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 16 2021