Homeland chief grilled on border policy
Some kids separated from families, most are not, McAleenan tells panel
WASHINGTON — A top official on President Donald Trump’s administration said Thursday that the number of family separations at the border has fallen since last summer’s zero-tolerance policy, and separations are done only for compelling reasons.
Acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan said fewer than 1,000 children have been separated from families out of 450,000 family groups that have crossed the border since October. He said they are separated because of health and safety concerns, among other reasons.
“The vast majority” of families are kept together, he said.
That tally does not include children who arrive with older siblings, or aunts and uncles and grandpar
ents and are separated under a long-standing policy meant to guard against human trafficking. McAleenan said Congress would need to amend laws to allow border officers more discretion in order to keep those groups together.
McAleenan was speaking Thursday before the House Oversight Committee investigating border problems. His testimony comes after a growing outcry over the treatment of migrants at the border, an internal investigation into Border Patrol agents who posted crude and mocking posts in a secret Facebook group and the move this week to reduce asylum claims on the U.S.-Mexico border.
Lawmakers mostly questioned McAleenan about the policy that led to the separation of more than 2,700 children from parents last year. A watchdog report later found thousands more may have been separated. Democrats and Republicans on the committee also traded barbs over emergency border funding and the moment the numbers of border crossings became a crisis.
“As I have testified and warned publicly, dozens of times this year and last, we are facing an unprecedented crisis at the border,” McAleenan told the committee.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials have encountered more than 800,000 people crossing the border from Mexico. More than 450,000 were in family groups.
“Combined, that means over 300,000 children have entered our custody since Oct. 1,” he said.
Oversight Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings, a Maryland Democrat, said McAleenan was an architect of the family separations. McAleenan wrongly called reports of filthy, overcrowded border facilities “unsubstantiated,” Cummings said.
“The administration wants to blame Democrats for this crisis, but it is the Trump administration’s own policies that are causing these problems,” Cummings said.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez questioned McAleenan about the Border Patrol Facebook posts, some of which were graphic, doctored images of the New York Democrat.
Ocasio-Cortez asked whether the agents were still on duty and wondered whether the family-separation policy had contributed to a “dehumanizing culture.”
McAleenan said there is an ongoing investigation, and several officials have been served with cease-and-desist orders and put on administrative leave. He told the committee that he hopes to report findings by early next month.
“We do not have a dehumanizing culture,” McAleenan responded.
Lawmakers didn’t question McAleenan on the new asylum rules. But the new policy is by far the biggest change to how the U.S. handles migrants.
Trump took executive action this week to require most migrants to apply for asylum in countries through which they travel, and that initiative already faces legal challenges. Republican senators are drafting measures that would change U.S. asylum laws and a court settlement known as Flores that restricts how long children can be detained.
“Flores has to be fixed, the asylum law, the loophole has to be addressed,” said Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan, the ranking Republican on the committee. “Maybe if we had a border security wall, that would help as well.”
Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., questioned the motives behind talk of addressing the Flores settlement, saying the Trump administration has made clear that “they want to keep kids longer.”
McAleenan said Congress’ delay in providing funding is part of what “left children in these situations way too long.” Last month, Congress passed $4.6 billion in supplemental funds for humanitarian purposes, which omitted some of the protections for migrants sought by progressive House Democrats.
The number of border crossings dropped last month in hot weather and a crackdown by Mexico on migrants to its southern border.
McAleenan said facilities are less crowded, especially for children who are supposed to be held in border holding stations for only 72 hours. Delays along the entire immigration system have forced migrants to wait in crowded border facilities not meant to hold people for more than a few days.