Sec. Mayorkas on the Millions of Illegal Immigrants Already in the Country: Amnesty Is the Answer

Reporter: “It also doesn’t address the other sort of the elephant in the room, which is dealing with undocumented immigrants, who are already here in the nation. And I know it’s been a political football as you’re trying to figure out the best way to address that, but I’m going to ask you, what is the best way to address that from your perspective?”
MAYORKAS: “The answer is quite clear and quite straightforward, and we’ve been waiting for for about 30 years, and that is to fix a system that everyone agrees is fundamentally broken, and we need congressional action both for the lawful pathways that really need to be more robust in statute and for the 12 million people who are here in the United States, who have been contributing so fundamentally to our country’s well-being. They’re our neighbors, our friends, our fellow congregants, they provide our front line workers. We need to do something, and I am hopeful and remain hopeful that Congress will do it. The president, on his first day in office, presented Congress with a proposal.”