WASHINGTON (NewsNation) — U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas testified before Congress as Democrats and Republicans demanded explanations regarding the border crisis and the impact on communities across the U.S.

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra also testified at Wednesday’s Senate Appropriations Committee hearing. It focused on the federal budget and spending related to border security and supplemental budgets requested by President Joe Biden for their respective departments.

Biden’s emergency funding package calls for more than $10 billion to address various aspects of border security, including funding for holding facilities, DNA collection and support for arrivals and unaccompanied children.

“Ensuring the safety and security of the American people must be more than just a talking point. We owe those who protect our country better,” Mayorkas said. “We owe them the funding, resources, and support needed to do their dangerous and difficult jobs. We owe them this supplemental funding package.”

Sources within the U.S. Customs and Border Protection told NewsNation October witnessed one of the highest numbers of encounters at the southern border on record.

Recent CBP data revealed that in September there were more than 260,000 encounters at the southern border, marking the highest monthly total ever recorded.

Over the last fiscal year, the southern border experienced more than 2.4 million encounters. In October, 240,000 people crossed into the U.S. from the south.

Mayorkas said DHS agents have removed or returned more than 350,00 non-citizens from the U.S. since the ending of pandemic-era rules under Title 42, and are disrupting and dismantling smuggling organizations that exploit the vulnerable.

“They do all of this and much more despite being perennially underfunded and inadequately resourced,” he said. “It would be a disservice to the American people and to the men and women who safeguard our homeland not to approve it.” 

Mayorkas stated that the U.S. is experiencing the greatest level of global migration since World War II. He noted that despite the agency working “under the constraints of a broken immigration system that Congress has failed to update since 1996, they’ve created a plan to manage this unprecedented migration.”

“Our strategy includes expanded lawful pathways for migration, strengthened consequences for unlawful entry at the border, removing a record number of individuals found to be ineligible for protection under the law, and increased partnership across the region to curb irregular migration.”

Additionally, the supplemental funding request will enable the hiring and deployment of 1,300 new Border Patrol agents, 1,400 attorneys and staff to support immigration cases and 2,700 new asylum officers and staff. It will also provide $1.4 billion to communities that need additional support and expedite work issuance documents for eligible non-citizens.

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-NH, who is a member of the Appropriations Committee, has expressed concerns regarding border encounters in the area encompassing the borders of New Hampshire, Vermont and parts of New York. In this specific section, encounters increased more than sixfold from fiscal year 2022 to 2023.

“Given the unique challenges on the Northern border and the sudden increase in encounters this year, attention to the specific needs of this sector is urgently needed,” Shaheen wrote in a letter to Mayorkas before Wednesday’s hearing.

Becerra stated that HHS’s top priorities are addressing the opioid crisis and affordable child care.

Mayorkas stated that DHS agents have seized more fentanyl in the past two years than in the past five years combined.

“Drug overdoses have been the leading cause of preventable American deaths every year for a decade, driven over the past five plus years by this incredibly cheap incredibly potent opioid smuggled into our country by cartels primarily via cars and trucks driven by American citizens.”