Secretary Mayorkas has a lot on his plate.

He has to deal with immigration and the border,

but also his agency is  responsible for helping businesses

protect themselves from being hacked.

We just had a major hack that shutdown a pipeline, for example.

He also is in charge of protecting airports,

being part of the counter-terrorism mission,

keeping bombs off planes.

And he also has to think about the emerging threat

of domestic violence extremism

in the wake of the insurrection  at the Capitol building.

So there's a lot of hot issues that  are coming to his desk right now.

We asked him about the border

and how he is handling the situation there.

He went to the Rio Grande Valley and talked

about how the number of children that

had been in Border Patrol facilities

had decreased drastically from April.

First of all, the Border Patrol  station is no place for a child.

So our immediate responsibility is get them out

of the Border Patrol station  as quickly as possible

and into the shelter and care of

the Department of Health and Human Services.

We have dedicated more than  300 Asylum and Refugee officers

to assist in case management to contract the time

that a child is in HHS custody before

unification with the parent or legal guardian

here in the U.S.

We refuse to say that we will not reunite

all the families.

And we are committed to reuniting the families

as fast as we can.

We recognize, number one, that we're dealing

with records that we are only now bringing

some level of completeness and order to.

They were in complete shambles.

We're dealing with such intangibles such as

individuals' reluctance to  come forward to be reunited.

We have trust deficits to overcome by reason

of the cruelty of the past.

And quite frankly, some people are hard to find.

[Bennett]: What do you say to parents considering sending

their children across the border right now?

[Mayorkas]: Don't do it.

[Bennett]: Why not?

[Mayorkas]: The border is not open.

The danger of the journey  is so extraordinarily acute,

and we are building alternatives,

legal pathways to assess the  eligibility of individuals

to actually receive relief under U.S. law.

And don't risk your children's lives, which

and they are at risk in the hands of smugglers.

Don't do it.

[Bennett]: Secretary Mayorkas is the first immigrant,

who was born overseas, came  to the U.S. as a child,

to take on the role of leading this department.

He was born in Cuba, came with his family

after the rise of Fidel  Castro's communism government

and he brings a different perspective to the job,

a different perspective to the department

because of that family background that he has.

My first interview as a  government--federal government

employee in the Obama administration,

the reporter, the first question I got was,

'so you used to be Cuban,'

and then she asked me a question,  which I didn't even hear

because I was stuck on the preamble.

Am I no longer Cuban? Do we lose our past

based on where we are now?

[Abramson]: What did you say?

[Mayorkas]: I said, I said that's just a no.

I haven't lost that. I'm a Cuban-American.

I'm a United States citizen,

I'm not a citizen of Cuba but  I haven't lost my heritage.

I think my family's experience and my own

influences my judgement, influences my perspective

on the world, on life, and on addressing the needs

of the American public, and  the needs of the migrants,

and the decisions we make.

It's who I am.

[Bennett]: Some are calling

for you to ignore criminal histories

in making deportation decisions, you know,

given the pattern of racially biased policing

in some cities in the country.

Will you consider ignoring criminal convictions

in deportation decisions?

[Mayorkas]: Brian, when you ask that question do you mean

ignoring them entirely?

Or factoring them into the decision in the

exercise of discretion? I would, you can see

by my response, which I put in question mark,

in question form, my answer, which is no

we will not ignore criminal history but we will

evaluate criminal history in determining whether

an individual poses a public safety threat.

I don't expect there to be unanimity of view

with respect to the guidelines  that I ultimately promulgate.

[Abrams]: Do you believe that Russia was involved at all

in the attack on the pipeline?

[Mayorkas]: There's no evidence

to suggest that it was at this point.

The evidence suggests that  it was criminal conduct.

[Bennett]: Do you feel like you have a handle

on internal threats

inside the department when it  comes to violent extremists?

[Mayorkas]: So that

presupposes the existence of violent extremists

within the department as  distinguished from ideologies

that I might find offensive  but that individuals are

of course free to hold.

Our obligation and my obligation  as the leader of this department

is to ensure that we do not  have violent extremists within

our ranks because that speaks  of a connection between

an ideology and the violence that it might breed.

That's our responsibility  and that's why I directed

the internal review that I did.

[Bennett]: DHS deployed federal agents  to quell protests during civic

unrest last summer. Do you  think that was an appropriate

use of agency resources?

[Mayorkas]: I think that agency resources

can be deployed according to authorities

of delegation to assist the  federal protective service

in protecting federal property  and people on federal property.

I think that is appropriate.

Whether they have the appropriate  training, the appropriate equipment,

whether they employ the  appropriate tactics in addressing

that responsibility is a separate question.

And quite frankly, we are reviewing  and revising substantially

the training protocols, the  equipment protocols, and the tactics.

[Bennett]: Do you think

the way that DHS officials  acted in the Portland protests

last summer hurt the reputation of the department?

[Mayorkas]: Yes.

[Abrams]: What are you doing to restore

trust in the department,

as a result of that specific incident?

[Mayorkas]: Yeah, because I

was about to say the work that I am doing

every gosh darn single, single day.

I work really, really hard.

Really, really. Well--

How does one not work incredible hard

in this job?

Or as an Assistant U.S. Attorney?

How does one not work this hard?

I mean, just from the point  of view of responsibility

as well as opportunity,

to execute responsibility really, really well.

Justice is a very individualized determination.

And ultimately

it rests

or depends upon the hands in whom it rests.