Mayorkas, amid impeachment calls over border, tells mayors mass migration problem is global issue

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Thursday told U.S. mayors gathered in Washington, D.C., that immigration is a global problem that impacts cities worldwide, amid complaints about the Biden administration’s handling or record-breaking migration at the country’s southern border and has overwhelmed nearby cities.

"The challenge of migration is not unique to the United States nor to the border communities that confront it every day," Mayorkas said in a roughly 13-minute speech at the U.S. Conference of Mayors’ meeting, according to Punchbowl News. 

"Around the world, there are more displaced people than at any time since World War II. Mass migration has gripped our hemisphere."

Mayorkas spoke as House Republicans lay groundwork to try to impeach the Cabinet secretary over U.S. border problems, making good on a 2022 midterm promise. 

"There are 2.5 million Venezuelans now living in Colombia and 1.5 million in Peru," Mayorkas continued Thursday. "Brazil and Chile are hosting more than 350,000 Haitians. And the number of displaced Nicaraguans in Costa Rica has more than doubled in the last 12 months alone."

He also called the United States’ immigration process "a broken system in desperate need of legislative reform," Punchbowl also reports.