Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem harshly criticized her predecessor during a sit-down with “Pod Force One,” released Wednesday, accusing Alejandro Mayorkas of having left the southern border wide open to drug cartels and human traffickers.
“I don’t know how he slept at night,” Noem told The NY Post’s Miranda Devine, claiming that Mayorkas was following “direction” from the Biden White House, where Vice President Kamala Harris was designated as the “border czar.”
“I don’t know how he slept at night knowing the vulnerabilities he was creating for this country and the people he was letting in and allowing to undo us,” the 53-year-old added.
During President Joe Biden’s administration, border encounters reached historic highs, with more than 8 million migrants entering the country — among them criminals, gang members, and individuals flagged on terrorism watchlists.
“I think one of the biggest disservices they did to the country was not fulfill the mission of what the department was established for; it literally is to secure the homeland,” Noem said.
“And he opened the doors and said, ‘Come on in. If you are from an evil foreign government or a terrorist organization or a gang, you’re more than welcome, and we’re going to ignore our laws and treat you better than we do the American citizens.’”
In February 2024, House Republicans impeached Mayorkas, charging that he had willfully failed to uphold federal immigration laws and misled Congress when he described the border as “secure.”
“They didn’t even try to close the border,” Noem remarked on the podcast.
“That’s what I think. Knowing you were doing nothing and watching, if you watched, the inhumanity of what was happening at the border.”
The Democrat-majority Senate later declined to hold a trial, effectively acquitting Mayorkas and shielding Biden’s DHS chief from removal.
Since President Trump’s return to the White House, more than 300,000 illegal entrants have been deported, with most believed to have criminal histories.
Inside the country, authorities estimate another 2 million migrants with criminal records remain at large.
Meanwhile, under the Biden administration, more than 320,000 minors who crossed the border alone became unaccounted for after being transferred from government-funded housing organizations to private sponsors — some of whom were not vetted and were linked to crime and gangs.
According to the Department of Health and Human Services, which coordinated with DHS’ Office of Refugee Resettlement, at least 7,300 cases of trafficked migrant children were never investigated.
“We knew children were going missing,” Noem said.
“We knew they were raping our girls at the border and trafficking our little boys. And they knew all that was going on and watched.”
“[They] watched the same child cross the border over and over again with a different group of adults and they just went to bed at night,” she continued.
“And as a mom and a grandma, that’s the stuff that I don’t know how they did that. I don’t know how they sat there and facilitated that.”
The Trump administration has since rescued 13,000 minors, while HHS continues to investigate thousands of cases tied to trafficking, fraudulent sponsorships, and other alleged exploitation.
In another part of the interview, Noem spoke about time she spent with Border Patrol agents who were “demonized” after Biden, Mayorkas, and Harris falsely accused them in 2021 of whipping migrants with their horses’ reins in Texas.
“I went down there and rode horse with them for a day, because, well, obviously I like to ride horses, but I went right away as soon as I was sworn in to go spend time with them, because they were so demonized,” she explained.
“And their leadership did that to them.”
Although Mayorkas had been briefed by an aide that there was no evidence agents had whipped Haitian migrants — even after a photographer present at the scene confirmed as much — he did not retract his claims, nor did Biden or Harris.
“Our nation saw horrifying images that do not reflect who we are,” Mayorkas said at the time, while Harris claimed the episode reminded her of “times of slavery.”
Noem told “Pod Force One” she “just wanted them to know that their previous leadership had ridden over them, but I was going to ride with them, and I was going to be a part of helping them do their jobs again.”
{Matzav.com}
Alejandro Mayorkas was one of the worst Biden appointees of his failed administration. Mayorkas lied constantly to Congress about his wide open door southern border policy. He wanted to establish his own police department to go after middle class white males who disagreed with their school boards policy of forcing transgenderism upon their 3 year old children.
Mayorkas was taken care of almost a year ago.