Thread by @jseldin

Happening now: "We are tracking that event very carefully" @SecMayorkas tells House Homeland Security Committee of shootings in & around #Atlanta #Georgia that left 8 ppl dead, 6 of them women of Asian descent

#Cybersecurity: "As a 1st step, I have directed grant funding that will provide an additional $25 million for state & local entities across the country to increase their cybersecurity" per @SecMayorkas re: #SolarWinds, @Microsoft Exchange hacks

.@CISAgov "remains laser focused on protecting & providing assistance to federal civilian agencies & working w/the private sector" adds @SecMayorkas

NEW: "Threat landscape has significantly evolved" per @SecMayorkas "While we remain vigilant about the threat of foreign terrorism, ideologically motivated domestic violent extremism now poses the most lethal & persistent terrorism related threat to the homeland today"

"The Jan. 6 attack on the #USCapitol & on American democracy is a searing example" per @SecMayorkas

"We are working to assess the linkage between extremists exploitation of social media & their acts of violence"

"We are expanding out intelligence & information sharing capabilities, again, consistent w/privacy rights, civil rights, & civil liberties, as part of a whole of gvt effort to combat domestic violent extremism" per @SecMayorkas

.@DHSgov grant program now make domestic violent extremism a priority area, per @SecMayorkas

States &urban area will spend at least $77 million "to prevent, prepare for, protect against & respond to acts of domestic violence extremism"

NEW: Surge at US southern border - "Most are single adults who are expelled within hours back to #Mexico" per @SecMayorkas "Families who are apprehended at the border are also immediately expelled ... unless we confront at times a limitation on Mexico's capacity to receive them"

US-#Mexico border: "We are also encountering many unaccompanied children, children who arrive without a parent or legal guardian " per @SecMayorkas

"Their families made the heart-wrenching decision to send them on a journey across Mexico to provide them w/a better, safer future" per @SecMayorkas

"The previous administration was expelling these unaccompanied children, some who are girls under the age of 12"

"The previous administration was expelling these unaccompanied children, some who are girls under the age of 12" per @SecMayorkas "We ended that practice"

.@SecMayorkas says unaccompanied children are being allowed to make claims for humanitarian relief "as the law provides"

"If it is determined they do not have a valid claim, they will be returned in a safe manner" he adds

US has increased capacity to hold the additional children coming to the border until @HHSGov can vet them...

@DHSgov also reestablishing the Central American Minors Program , so children have legal pathway for relief & don't have to make the dangerous journey, per @SecMayorkas

"We will not waiver in our commitments" per @SecMayorkas "We will also not waiver in our values & our principles as a nation"

"We can & we will tackle the many challenges we face while complying w/our legal obligations & honoring our nations values & principles"

#USCapitol siege "was heartbreaking" per @SecMayorkas

"I certainly am reviewing the events that led up to that horrible day. I'm also mindful of the fact that there are criminal investigation underway to address individuals who broke the law"

"Domestic violent extremism in one of the gravest & most persistent threats that we as a country face" per @SecMayorkas "We are fully engaged in addressing it"

Children separated from parents at the border under Pres. Trump "subject of an intense effort & and all of gvt efforts directed by Pres. Biden to find the parents & reunite the families" per @SecMayorkas

"This is a full-time effort by talented & dedicated individuals" per @SecMayorkas re: reuniting children w/parents

"We have an obligation"

.@HomelandGOP's @RepJohnKatko presses @SecMayorkas on whether situation at the border is a "crisis"

Mayorkas replies, "Mr. Ranking Member, I'm not spending any time on the language that we use. I am spending the time on operational response to the situation"

"The border is secure & the border is not open" per @SecMayorkas "We are expelling, under the CDC's public health authority in light of the pandemic, single individual who arrive at the border. We are expelling families under that same public health authority"

"The message is, 'Come on in,'" @RepMcCaul tells @SecMayorkas of @POTUS border policies

"Why in the world did this administration, Pres. Biden, basically shred the Trump administration's agreements w/#Mexico & Central America?"

"Sometimes the tools of deterrence defy the values & principles for which we all stand" per @SecMayorkas "One of those tools of deterrence that the Trump administration deployed was deplorable & absolutely unacceptable"

"And if we want to speak of language... a crises is when a nation is willing to rip a 9yo child out of the hands of his or her parent & separate that family to deter future migration" per @SecMayorkas

"What the president is committed to, & what I am committed to execute is to make sure we have an immigration system that works, and migration to ur country is safely, orderly & humane" adds @SecMayorkas

.@RepMcCaul says he, too, was against family separation

"We have seen migration surges before - 2019 was extraordinary, 2104, and before then" per @SecMayorkas

"The immigration system is broken & it is in need of legislative reform" he says, noting bills pending before the House

#Cyber: "This is one of my foremost urgent priorities" per @SecMayorkas "The #cyber threat this country faces from nation-state actors as well as from individual actors, cannot be overstated. The threat to critical infrastructure cannot be overstated"

"This hearing, this meeting, for many Americans watching it has been quite nauseating thus far" @RepClayHiggins tells @SecMayorkas "The carefully read scripted statements-I'm not sure you're here to answer questions, sir. I suspect you're here to present a prepared narrative"

"My sources tell me they're coming now & they're coming through the year" @RepClayHiggins says

"The cartels have 2 million in the pipeline" he claims "I don't believe you have a plan to deal with it"

"Let me assure you of one thing...despite our string differences of opinion, I look forward to working w/you toward shared goals" @SecMayorkas replies

Pronouncements by some that #Election2020 was stolen "not fact based" per @SecMayorkas "They are actually in defiance of the facts"

Mayorkas also praises former @CISAgov @C_C_Krebs for agency's work on election security

NEW: @RepDanBishop ask @SecMayorkas about reports of 4 individuals on the terror watchlist being apprehended at the border

Mayorkas say he is aware of the reports, & in response to Bishop's question says "no," terrorists do not have the right to cross the border to seek asylum

Known or suspect terrorists - "Individuals who match that profile have tried to cross the border, the land border, have tried to travel by air into the United States, not only this year, but last year" per @SecMayorkas "That's not a new phenomenon"

"It is because of our multi-layered security apparatus, the architecture that we have built since the commencement of the Dept of Homeland Security, that we are in fact able to identify & apprehend them & ensure that they do not remain in the United States" per @SecMayorkas

"I am concerned if one tries to come" per @SecMayorkas on terrorists attempting to enter the US