By Suzanne Monyak | CQ-Roll Call
WASHINGTON — Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas discussed immigration policy Tuesday afternoon with the Senate’s four Latino Democrats, as the administration prepares to lift pandemic-related border restrictions later this year.
The group, which met in the Senate Foreign Relations committee room for nearly an hour, included Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Menendez of New Jersey, Sen. Alex Padilla of California, who chairs the Judiciary Committee’s immigration panel, and Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada and Ben Ray Luján of New Mexico.
Menendez described the meeting as a “positive, constructive conversation about a wide range of issues in the immigration space that we feel that the administration should be considering.”
Menendez said the four senators expressed concerns about the pandemic border expulsion policy, known as Title 42, as well as a forthcoming policy proposal, announced last month, that would limit asylum eligibility for migrants who passed through another country en route to the U.S.-Mexico border. Menendez said he anticipates the rule “in a couple of weeks.”
“We hope that he’ll take that back, what we had to say and share, to the administration,” Menendez said in a brief interview, adding: “He was in a listening mode.”
Padilla said the meeting was “productive” and that “immigration was the focus,” including the impending end to Title 42 and the “modernization of the asylum system.”
“It was constructive. He clearly knows what he’s doing. It’s just, probably, one of the most difficult tasks in the federal government,” Padilla said as he exited.
Tuesday’s meeting marked the first time Mayorkas met in-person with the four Congressional Hispanic Caucus senators this calendar year. Mayorkas met virtually last month with members of the Hispanic Caucus, where caucus leaders said they criticized the secretary for failing to consult them sufficiently…
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