STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Alejandro Mayorkas just spent four years running a vast part of the U.S. government. The Department of Homeland Security includes everything from the Secret Service to the Coast Guard, everything from border enforcement to cybersecurity. Congress assembled this agency after 9/11, and ever since, it has faced the question we put to Secretary Mayorkas in an exit interview.
Does the Department of Homeland Security as a department make sense?
ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS: Yes, and I think it is more fit for purpose than it ever has been.
INSKEEP: Mayorkas visited our studios as he prepares to hand over his portfolio to the Trump administration. We heard his answers yesterday on immigration. Today, we talk more broadly about the alphabet soup of agencies he oversees, CBP and ICE, FEMA, even the FLETC - the Federal Law Enforcement Training Centers. He says global and domestic threats demand that those agencies work together.
MAYORKAS: We are in a heightened threat environment, Steve. Adverse nation states, foreign terrorism, domestic violent extremism that fuel a heightened threat environment.
INSKEEP: The events of New Year's Day underline the diversity of threats. Police say a man attacked a crowd in New Orleans having been inspired by ISIS, a global terror group, yet acting on his own. One question for DHS is how to head off similar threats in the future.
MAYORKAS: The issue is, how do we as a society identify when an individual is descending down a path of violence? Increasing isolation, withdrawal from important people in their lives, statements made in person or online through channels that are publicly accessible - how do we identify that and intervene? From a public health perspective, we have efforts underway. We have a center for prevention and partnership where we are taking a health-informed approach in communities across the country - really locally based, federally supported - and seeing if we can intervene and prevent an individual from actually committing an act of violence before it's too late.
INSKEEP: Let me ask about an agency within DHS that had to respond to threats in the last year - the Secret Service. Is the Secret Service understaffed?
MAYORKAS: It is understaffed. It is under-resourced. The failure of July 13...
INSKEEP: The assassination attempt.
MAYORKAS: ...Was a failure of operation not attributable to a lack of resources. That was a failure of operation. But let me say the following. The Secret Service is under-resourced, it is understaffed, and I continue to believe quite strongly that it remains and is nevertheless the best protective service in the world. And what people do not see is its successes, because success means that there is nothing to see.
INSKEEP: Isn't Customs and Border Protection also understaffed?
MAYORKAS: Yes, it is. And we need more border patrol agents. We need more customs officials. And this is not only to serve our nation's physical security, but it also facilitates lawful trade and travel and will serve to fuel America as an economic engine.
INSKEEP: The Government Accountability Office had a report recently which found that you had made efforts to recruit more border agents, offering bonuses and so forth, but that you still weren't keeping up with attrition, the number of people who leave. Why do you think that is?
MAYORKAS: Well, I think it's been a tough time for law enforcement in this country. I do hope that we turn that corner very rapidly. It is an extraordinarily noble profession. There was footage from the New Orleans tragedy where there are a number of officers captured on video. One can see them receiving in their earpieces news of an event that turned out to be indeed tragic, and they all run towards that event. They run towards danger with the sole mission of helping others. That is a remarkably heroic image of heroic people. And I hope recruiting flourishes by reason of that.
INSKEEP: Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, thanks for coming by our studios. Really appreciate it.
MAYORKAS: Thank you, Steve.
INSKEEP: On January 20, as the Biden administration leaves power, Mayorkas steps down as Secretary of Homeland Security. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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