Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas was confronted over the timing of President Joe Biden‘s executive order that bars migrants from seeking asylum when the number of illegal migrant apprehensions exceeds 2,500 per day.

Mayorkas was pressed during an interview on ABC News’s This Week by host Martha Raddatz, who asked why the administration waited months after a bipartisan deal in the Senate to address the border crisis failed.

“We had that bipartisan deal, but it’s been four months since then, and you just now decided to take this action,” Raddatz stated.

“The bipartisan deal was rejected once,” Mayorkas said. “We pressed forward again. It was rejected a second time. And then we developed this and have implemented it and we are at an early stage.”