Alejandro Mayorkas in Fox News Sunday interviews during 2021

On Immigration: Humanitarian relief one of our proudest traditions

MAYORKAS: We have seen large numbers of individuals encountered at our border making a claim for asylum, for humanitarian relief, which is a statute. That's what the law provides. We are certainly seeing a large number here in this year, but in 2019, we saw a large number. In 2014, in 2010. This is nothing new. It spans many, many years. It spans different administrations of both parties, and it speaks to the need for legislative reform.

Q: Why didn't you build a wall or a fence to stop them?

MAYORKAS: We do not agree with the building of the wall. The law provides that individuals can make a claim for humanitarian relief. That is actually one of our proudest traditions.

Gov. Greg ABBOTT: Listen, Secretary Mayorkas and even President Biden are in dereliction of duty. The US Constitution itself requires that the president and secure the sovereignty of the USA, and the Biden administration has abandoned any pretense of securing the sovereignty.

On Immigration: Border migration irregular, ebbs and flows

MAYORKAS: This is nothing new. We've seen this type of irregular migration many, many times throughout the years. I don't know if Governor Abbott said the same thing in 2019 when there were more than a million people encountered at the southern border.