Mayorkas deflects when asked if 'above 85%' of illegal immigrants are released into the US

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Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas deflected questioning Wednesday on Capitol Hill when he was asked about a Fox News Digital article stating that he has admitted to Border Patrol agents that the current rate of release for illegal immigrants apprehended at the U.S. border is "above 85%." 

Rep. Michael Guest, R-Miss., was grilling Mayorkas about the statistic during a House Appropriations Committee hearing on Homeland Security’s fiscal year 2025 budget request. 

"It was reported in January of this year that at a meeting with Border Patrol agents, that you said that the current rate of release for illegal immigrants apprehended at the southwest border is above 85%. One, did that conversation take place and two, is that number accurate?" the Republican from Mississippi asked Mayorkas. 

"Congressman, I'm not familiar with that number and I'm not certain to which conversation you refer. I have visited the border so very many times," he responded. "Perhaps some additional details would guide me in responding your question accurately." 

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Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas speaks on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday. (AP/Mark Schiefelbein)

Guest then read Mayorkas the opening paragraphs from the Fox News Digital report, which said he "made the remarks when meeting privately with agents in Eagle Pass, Texas, according to three Border Patrol sources who were in the room and heard the remarks themselves." 

"Congressman, I'll be pleased to provide you with the data points, and certainly I don't view that article as a transcript," Mayorkas said. 

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Mayorkas deflected Wednesday when asked about the statistics in the January 2024 Fox News Digital report. (AP/Mark Schiefelbein)

"So you're not disputing this article? You're not saying that that number is artificially high? You're just saying at this point that you don't have that number here to either admit or deny the 85% that it was alleged there in the article?" Guest then asked. 

"I cannot confirm, and I will do so," Mayorkas said. 

A Homeland Security official told Fox News Digital that it's a longstanding practice to release non-citizens who pose no threat to national security or public safety while their immigration proceedings are pending, noting that previous administrations — both Republican and Democratic — have done so.

The official added that the releases are necessary to ease overcrowding in Border Patrol and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities and to ensure the health and safety of the non-citizens.

Border patrol agents and Texas National Guardsmen survey the area near the Rio Grande in Eagle Pass, Texas, on Sept. 27, 2023. (Benjamin Lowy for Fox News Digital )

While Mayorkas was at Eagle Pass in January, he also said "the majority of all Southwest Border migrant encounters throughout this Administration have been removed, returned, or expelled — the majority of them" and that "we are doing everything we can, within a broken system, to incentivize non-citizens to use lawful pathways, to impose consequences on those who do not, and to reduce irregular migration."

The exchange Wednesday comes as Republican senators are gearing up to prevent all legislative business in the Senate from going forward if they don't get a full trial into the articles of impeachment against Mayorkas. The House voted to impeach Mayorkas in February. 

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Fox News’ Julia Johnson contributed to this report.