Mayorkas defends U.S. border policy after death of 53 migrants in tractor trailer
CBSN
Washington — Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Sunday defended the Biden administration's immigration policy following the deaths of 53 migrants who were abandoned in the back of a tractor trailer, saying U.S. immigration officials have repeatedly warned against traveling to the southern border.
"We have said repeatedly and we continue to warn people not to take the dangerous journey," Mayorkas said in an interview with "Face the Nation." "We saw so tragically in San Antonio, Texas, one of the possible tragic results of that dangerous journey and so many people don't even make it that far in the hands of exploitative smugglers. And we continue to enforce immigration law, as is our legal responsibility."
Ashley White received her earliest combat action badge from the United States Army soon after the first lieutenant arrived in Afghanistan. The silver military award, recognizing soldiers who've been personally engaged by an attacker during conflict, was considered an achievement in and of itself as well as an affirming rite of passage for the newly deployed. White had earned it for using her own body to shield a group of civilian women and children from gunfire that broke out in the midst of her third mission in Kandahar province. All of them survived. She never mentioned the badge to anyone in her battalion.