Mayorkas: US must tackle 'root causes' of border surge, construct asylum pathways as numbers stay high

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Wednesday said that the U.S. must invest in tackling "root causes" of the migration crisis and construct "legal pathways" for asylum-seekers as part of the solution to the border crisis -- as new numbers show migrant encounters remaining high.

Mayorkas laid out a three-pronged solution to the crisis -- which the administration has mostly preferred to refer to as a "challenge." "It is investing in the countries of origins, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador in tackling the root causes that caused the irregular migration, that caused loving parents to actually send their children alone and sometimes in the hands of smugglers to traverse Mexico to reach our southern border," he said.