DHS leader: Now fewer than 1,000 children separated from families

WASHINGTON — A top Trump administration official said Thursday the number of family separations at the border has fallen since last summer’s zero tolerance policy, and they 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 come with older siblings, or aunts and uncles and grandparents and are separated under longstanding 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 amid 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 effectively end asylum 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 reporter later found thousands more may have been separated.

“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 migrants crossing the border from Mexico. Over 450,000 were families.

“Combined, that means over 300,000 children have entered our custody since Oct. 1st,” 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 OcasioCortez 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 some had been placed on administrative duty but didn’t elaborate.

“We do not have a dehumanizing culture,” McAleenan responded.