The Department of Homeland Security Secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas, criticised Texas’s attempts to stop illegal immigration while praising Vice President Kamala Harris’s role in addressing the “root causes” of the border crisis. Speaking at the annual Texas Tribune Festival in Austin, Mayorkas said that this is the first time he has seen a state act in direct contradiction to national interests. Over 10 million illegal immigrants have entered the United States since President Joe Biden took office in January 2021, with Harris put in charge of dealing with the issue in March 2021. Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s Operation Lone Star has deployed thousands of National Guard soldiers and Department of Public Safety troopers to transport illegal immigrants to self-declared sanctuary cities and build a state border wall, costing $11 billion. Mayorkas called Abbott’s efforts to bus illegal immigrants to other states without notice or coordination with receiving cities “incomprehensible. He also criticised Senate Bill 4, which makes crossing into Texas unlawfully from a foreign nation a state felony and empowers state and local law enforcement to make arrests and carry out deportations.
