The Biden admin official made the claims while testifying before Congress about the border security budget and spending, as well as the record number of illegal immigrants invading the United States.
Sen. Hyde-Smith (R-MS) asked Mayorkas: "So the situation at the border, you're saying, is not a disaster?"
"That is correct," Mayorkas answered.
The denial from the secretary comes after US Customs and Border Patrol (CPB) released data last month that shows illegal immigration is the highest it has ever been under the Biden administration.
There were a record 2.4 million apprehensions at the US border in the 2023 fiscal year, per data released by US Customs and Border Protection. In 2022, there were 2.3 million apprehensions.
There has been heightened focus on the crisis at the US-Southern border following the Israel-Hamas war, with Republican officials cautioning that Biden's open-border policies could result in terrorists entering the country.
CBP data backs those concerns and shows that 172 non-citizens who were on the terrorist watchlist were apprehended at the border in 2023, which was an increase from 2022's record year of 98. Before 2021, the highest number was six in 2018 under former President Trump's strict border policies.
In a letter sent to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) demanded answers for the "uptick in potential terrorist-linked illegal aliens encountered at the southern border."
He told Mayorkas it was "imperative that [he] address this issue immediately to ensure the safety of American citizens, especially Jewish Americans, who are facing increased threats to their physical safety following the Hamas attack."
"Illegal aliens with potential ties to terrorist organizations such as Hamas and Hezbollah have no place in the United States," Hawley added, telling Mayorkas it was "critical that you abandon your radical open border policies."
Between October 2021 and October 2022, Border Patrol apprehended tens of thousands of "Special Interest Aliens," which the Department of Homeland Security classifies as a non-US citizen who potentially poses a national security risk to the United States, such as terrorism or a nexus to terrorism.
This includes 6,386 nations from Afghanistan, 3,153 from Egypt, 659 from Iran, 538 from Syria, 30,830 from Turkey, 1,613 from Pakistan, 164 from Lebanon, 185 from Jordan, 139 from Yemen, 123 from Iraq, 15,594 from Mauritania, and 13,624 from Uzbekistan, according to Fox News.
Days after Hamas launched a terrorist attack on Israel, Border Patrol apprehended more "Special Interest Aliens," which included 14 from Syria, 2 from Lebanon, and multiple from Iran.
Despite the facts revealed in the data, Secretary Mayorkas maintained on Wednesday that the current state of the US-Mexico border is not a cause of concern.
