HARLOW: “Would you, Secretary, qualify what is happening on the border right now as a crisis?”

MAYORKAS: “You know, we — we have seen the situation at the border managed in an orderly way. We have seen it in extraordinary challenging circumstances as well. You can rest assured, Poppy, that we’re doing everything that we possibly can to build a system that provides humanitarian relief in a safe and orderly way, while trying to persuade Congress to fix what is a broken system.”

HARLOW: “I understand that. But just what you’re seeing, what you’ve seen the 20 times you’ve been there, the record number of migrants at the southern border, and last year it was nearly 2.4 million, if that’s not a crisis, Secretary, what is?”

MAYORKAS: “You know, Poppy, we have seen 2.4 million encounters at our southern border, and it is reflective of the greatest level of displacement of people in the world since World War II. It is reflective of a migration challenge that is gripping the entire hemisphere. When I was in Columbia, I spoke with the president of the country, the foreign minister, the minister of security, and they spoke of 2.4 million Venezuelans in Columbia now. We’re seeing Costa Rica’s population increasingly formed by Nicaraguans. We’re seeing a tremendous movement of people throughout the hemisphere. A regional challenge requires a regional solution, which is why President Biden has led the regional leaders in addressing it.”

HARLOW: “I understand that, Mr. Secretary, but this is in the hands of you now, and the Biden Administration.”