Alejandro Mayorkas Still Won’t Call It an Immigration Crisis

After months of negotiations, the until-now-secret text of a bipartisan Senate immigration bill may soon be released, with Senator Chuck Schumer, the majority leader, saying a vote could come as soon as next week. Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas, whose department is responsible for securing the border, has been actively involved in the negotiations, even as former President Donald Trump has tried to derail them in order to prevent President Biden from getting any credit for border reform.

At the same time as talks have progressed in the Senate, Mayorkas has become the target of a partisan impeachment effort in the House, with Republicans claiming that he has broken the law by not more forcefully stopping migrants from crossing illegally into the United States. Mayorkas was tight-lipped on the impeachment proceeding and on the details of the Senate legislation, including whether he supports the idea of border shutdowns. He was also careful when I asked him about the political repercussions of what many Americans, including many Democrats, now view as an immigration crisis. (Mayorkas will not use the word “crisis.” He says “the system is broken.”) And he would not talk about Biden-administration missteps.

But immigration, of course, is not just an issue on Capitol Hill. Undocumented migrants are sleeping on streets across the country, city resources are overwhelmed and the border has become a major concern for voters in an already volatile presidential election year.

As we’re speaking, Republicans in the House are preparing to impeach you for high crimes and misdemeanors, saying that you’ve not secured the border and that you’ve lied about it. Many legal scholars on the left and the right say the charges