Mayorkas decries GOP attacks over baby formula at border facilities as "repugnant"

McAllen, Texas — Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas on Tuesday forcefully denounced the connection some Republican lawmakers have made between the national baby formula shortage and the availability of formula at migrant holding facilities along the U.S.-Mexico border.

"We are taking care of the basic needs of people in our custody. We are taking care of the basic needs of babies, and that includes baby formula," Mayorkas told CBS News during an interview Tuesday near the Texas border. "The connection between honoring our humanitarian and legal obligation to those babies and a supply issue in the interior of the United States is false and repugnant."

Conservative outrage over the availability of baby formula at border facilities first emerged last week after Congresswoman Kat Cammack, a Republican from Florida, published photos juxtaposing an alleged stockpile of baby formula at a Customs and Border Protection (CBP) processing site and a half empty store shelf.