Tag Archives: Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas

U.S. to tell critical rail, air companies to report hacks, name cyber chiefs

By Christopher Bing

(Reuters) -The Transportation Security Administration will introduce new regulations that compel the most important U.S. railroad and airport operators to improve their cybersecurity procedures, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said on Wednesday.

The upcoming changes will make it mandatory for “higher-risk” rail transit companies and “critical” U.S. airport and aircraft operators to do three things: name a chief cyber official, disclose hacks to the government and draft recovery plans for if an attack were to occur.

The planned regulations come after cybercriminals attacked a major U.S. pipeline operator, causing localized gas shortages along the U.S. East Coast in May. The incident led to new cybersecurity rules for pipeline owners in July.

“Whether by air, land, or sea, our transportation systems are of utmost strategic importance to our national and economic security,” Mayorkas said. “The last year and a half has powerfully demonstrated what’s at stake.”

A key concern motivating the new policies comes from a growth in ransomware attacks against critical infrastructure companies.

“It’s the first of its kind with respect to the cyber focus,” said a senior homeland security official, who declined to be named, about the railway security directive and an update to aviation security programs.

Ransomware, a type of malware variant that encrypts a victimized system until the owner pays a ransom in the form of cryptocurrency to the hacker, has become increasingly common in recent years.

“If transportation does not work, if people can’t go from A to B, then it can create pressure pretty quickly [to pay the ransom],” said the senior official.

The announcement also follows reports in June of a Chinese hacking group infiltrating New York City’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority and an August 2020 ransomware attack https://www.inquirer.com/transportation/septa-malware-attack-employees-riders-app-announcements-20200824.html against the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority, causing a disruption to services.

The Homeland Security Department helped investigate the MTA incident alongside other federal agencies, including the FBI.

Last month, the TSA notified the private sector about the impending regulations, said the senior official, and the agency is currently receiving feedback.

The regulations will become active before the end of 2021.

(Reporting by Christopher Bing; editing by Diane Craft)

U.S. homeland security chief heads to border as removal of migrant camp accelerates

By Daina Beth Solomon

CIUDAD ACUNA, Mexico (Reuters) – The U.S. homeland security secretary will travel to Texas on Monday to oversee the ejection of mostly Haitian migrants from a sprawling makeshift camp they set up after wading across the Rio Grande from Mexico.

The camp under a bridge spanning the Rio Grande is the latest flashpoint for U.S. authorities seeking to stem the flow of thousands of migrants fleeing gang violence, extreme poverty and natural disasters in their home countries.

On Sunday, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas implored migrants to give up on their northern trek, arguing the government has “no choice” but to expel them.

Mayorkas will meet with local officials and hold a news conference, according to a statement from his office.

The camp in Del Rio, Texas was temporary home to 12,000 migrants at one point. Many had trekked through south and Central America to get there and hoped to apply for asylum.

The first flights of ejected Haitians from camp landed in Port-au-Prince on Sunday, and at least three more were set to land on Monday, according to flight tracking website Flightaware.

Del Rio lies across the border from Ciudad Acuna, which sits on the Mexican side of the river.

Dozens of Haitians carrying backpacks and plastic bags of belongings have abandoned the camp and returned to Ciudad Acuna, saying they planned to stay in Mexico for now because they did not want to be sent to Haiti.

While Biden rolled back many of his predecessor Donald Trump’s immigration actions early in his presidency, he left in place a sweeping pandemic-era expulsion policy under which most migrants caught crossing the U.S.-Mexico border are quickly turned back.

Alongside frantic scenes of determined Haitians seeking to cross the river but met by horse-mounted border police blocking them, other migrants quietly managed a happier fate, making in through the U.S. immigration check point.

Venezuelan migrant Melvin Azuaje, 31, and his younger brother Manuel, 11, told Reuters they were flying to the U.S. state of South Carolina where a cousin awaited them, after their asylum petitions were processed.

Azuaje, who said he took custody of Manuel after their mother died of cancer, said they had been in Del Rio for over a week, first spending two days under the bridge before being moved to a processing center.

Melvin said he was eager for Manuel, who loves baseball and math, to start a new life.

“It’s giving me goosebumps,” he said as he transited through Dallas airport Sunday evening.

(Reporting by Daina Beth Solomon in Ciudad Acuna; Additional reporting by Alexandra Ulmer in Del Rio; Writing by David Alire Garcia; Editing by Alistair Bell)

U.S. facing biggest migrant surge in 20 years: Homeland Security

By Doina Chiacu

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States is facing the biggest surge of migrants at its southwestern border in 20 years, the homeland security secretary said on Tuesday as the Biden administration races to handle an influx of children trying to cross the U.S.-Mexico border alone.

The number of attempted border crossings by people from Central America and Mexico has steadily increased since April 2020 and most single adults and families are being turned away, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said.

Poverty, violence and corruption in the Mexico and the Northern Triangle – Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador – have led people to seek a better life in the United States for years, and there have been surges in the past.

Conditions there have continued to deteriorate and two hurricanes made living conditions even worse, while the coronavirus pandemic complicated the border situation, Mayorkas said in a statement.

“We are on pace to encounter more individuals on the southwest border than we have in the last 20 years,” he said.

U.S. border agents conducted 100,441 apprehensions or expulsions of migrants at the border with Mexico in February, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection said last week, the highest monthly total since a border crisis of 2019.

Single adults make up the majority of people who are being expelled, Mayorkas said. Children traveling alone, some as young as six years old, are not being turned back.

The government is creating a joint processing center to transfer the children promptly into the custody of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and is trying to find additional shelters for them, Mayorkas said in a statement.

President Joe Biden’s administration has been struggling to speed up the processing of hundreds of youths under 18 who are crossing the southern border alone every day.

Republicans in Congress say the Biden administration sparked the border surge by promising to unwind some of former President Donald Trump’s hardline policies against illegal immigration.

“It didn’t have to happen. This crisis is created by the presidential policies of this new administration,” House of Representatives Republican leader Kevin McCarthy said at an El Paso border facility on Monday.

Republicans in turn were criticized by Democrats for their own immigration record, as well as Trump’s policies.

Nearly 4,300 unaccompanied children were being held by Border Patrol officials as of Sunday, according to an agency official who requested anonymity. By law, the children should be transferred out of Customs and Border Protection facilities to HHS-run shelters within 72 hours.

In the short term, the federal government is setting up additional facilities in Texas and Arizona to shelter unaccompanied children and families, and is working with Mexico to increase its capacity to receive expelled families, Mayorkas said.

(Reporting by Doina Chiacu and Ted Hesson; Editing by Jonathan Oatis and Alistair Bell)

U.S. defends response to child migrant surge at southwest border

By Doina Chiacu

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas defended the U.S. response to a surge of unaccompanied children seeking to enter the United States at the southwest border on Tuesday, saying the region was on track to see more people trying to enter than any time in the last 20 years.

The government is creating a joint processing center to transfer the children, as young as 6 years old, promptly into the custody of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and is trying to find additional shelters for them, Mayorkas said in a statement.

“The situation we are currently facing at the southwest border is a difficult one. We are tackling it,” he said.

President Joe Biden’s administration has been racing to speed up the processing of hundreds of youths under 18 who are crossing the southern border alone every day from Central American countries and Mexico.

Officials have warned “the border is not open” and said they are sending back adults and families who have tried to cross it illegally since Biden took office promising to reverse some of predecessor Donald Trump’s hardline policies.

Administration officials have acknowledged their messaging is being countered by people smugglers and human traffickers who profit from the dangerous illegal journeys.

“The smugglers’ message is very pervasive, they prey on people and they prey on their hope and they tell them things that simply aren’t true,” Roberta Jackson, a White House adviser on immigration, said in an interview with CNN on Tuesday. “But we are fighting back.”

Nearly 4,300 unaccompanied children were being held by Border Patrol officials as of Sunday, according to an agency official who requested anonymity. By law, the children should be transferred out of Customs and Border Protection facilities to HHS-run shelters within 72 hours.

Mayorkas acknowledged that Border Patrol facilities are crowded and that the 72-hour time frame for their transfer to HHS is not always met.

In the short term, the federal government is setting up additional facilities in Texas and Arizona to shelter unaccompanied children and families, and is working with Mexico to increase its capacity to receive expelled families, he said.

Authorities are creating joint processing centers so children can be transferred immediately from Border Patrol to HHS, which is getting additional facilities to house the children until they are placed with families or sponsors, Mayorkas said.

They also will work with Mexico and international groups to expand an online platform that children can access to register for entry into the United States without taking the dangerous trip, he said.

Longer-term solutions include developing a formal refugee program that includes processing centers in Mexico and the Northern Triangle countries of El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras.

The Biden administration will soon issue a new regulation and other asylum reforms, including shortening the time it takes to adjudicate an asylum claim from years to months, Mayorkas said.

While poverty, violence and corruption in the Northern Triangle and Mexico have led people to seek a better life in the United States for years, Mayorkas said the coronavirus pandemic and two hurricanes have made the situation worse.

Republicans in Congress on Monday stepped up attacks on Biden over a surge of migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border, but were criticized in turn by Democrats for their own immigration record, as well as Trump’s policies.

“The prior administration completely dismantled the asylum system. The system was gutted, facilities were closed, and they cruelly expelled young children into the hands of traffickers,” Mayorkas said on Tuesday. “We have had to rebuild the entire system.”

(Reporting by Doina Chiacu, Ted Hesson and Susan Heavey; Editing by Andrew Heavens, Nick Zieminski and Jonathan Oatis)