Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas admitted on Sunday that more than 12,000 Haitian migrants have been released into the US and more may follow.
He told “Fox News Sunday” that there are about 12,400 Haitians in the process of having asylum claims heard by an immigration judge, while around 5,000 are being processed by the Department of Homeland Security.
About 3,000 are being detained.
“Approximately, I think it’s about 10,000 or so, 12,000,” Mayorkas responded when asked how many migrants have already been released.
He added that the number could go beyond 5,000 as other cases are processed.
“It could be even higher. The number that are returned could be even higher. What we do is we follow the law as Congress has passed it,” Mayorkas said.
The secretary said the administration “will make determinations whether they will be returned to Haiti based on our public health and public interest authorities.”