Homeland Security head rejects GOP claims of border `crisis’

WASHINGTON (AP) — The head of the Department of Homeland Security is pushing back against Republican criticism of the Biden administration’s border policies. Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas is refusing to say that a surge of migrant children entering the United State is a “crisis.” GOP members of Congress argue that President Joe Biden has wrongly rolled back immigration policies enacted by Donald Trump. But in congressional testimony Wednesday, Mayorkas is pointing to a Trump policy, namely the separation of immigrant families under a “zero tolerance” policy on border crossings. Mayorkas says, “A crisis is when a nation is willing to rip a 9-year-old child out of the hands of his or her parent and separate that family to deter future migration.”