Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Sunday defended the country’s border policies, insisting the Biden administration was taking a strong enough stance on a surge of migration while batting away claims it was being overly strict.

Mayorkas took issue with criticism from progressives who compared President Joe Biden’s policies to those of former President Donald Trump, who required migrants to apply for asylum in countries they passed through before applying for it the U.S.

The secretary said that over the past two days, the Border Patrol has seen an approximately 50% drop in the number of people encountered at the southern border compared to numbers earlier this week before Title 42 ended at midnight on Thursday.