Democrats blast immigration policy
DHS chief Nielsen faces pointed questioning
Democrats hammered Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen on Wednesday over President Donald Trump’s attempts to unilaterally expand the southern border wall and the administration’s “zero tolerance” policy that led to thousands of migrant families being separated.
Nielsen said the policy was not a “family separation” one but did mandate criminal prosecutions against all migrants, including those with children. That forced families to be separated, because children can’t be housed in adult detention centers.
“You knew that that policy was going to result in children having to be taken away from their parents,” said Rep. Kathleen Rice, D-N.Y. “That’s a policy. You should admit it.”
Nielsen countered that the administration was simply enforcing U.S. law and the separations were never the intended purpose. “The point of it was to
increase prosecutions for those breaking the law,” she told members of the House Homeland Security Committee.
As the secretary was being questioned, officials who oversee the administration’s immigration policy were being questioned at three other simultaneous congressional hearings.
Democrats in the House Judiciary Committee sharply criticized Trump’s attempts to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. In the Senate Judiciary Committee, the Customs and Border Protection commissioner blamed U.S. laws for a spike in migrants at the border. And the DHS acting inspector general told a subcommittee that fulfilling Trump’s mandate to hire 7,500 new border officers and agents is highly unlikely.
House Homeland Committee Chairman Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., asked why children were kept in cages at Border Patrol facilities at the peak of the family separation policy.
“Sir, they’re not cages,” Nielsen said. That answer enraged Thompson, who said he has seen them himself and accused Nielsen of again trying to mislead the public.
The contentious questioning punctuated the first appearance before a Democrat-led committee for Nielsen, who has been the public face of the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement.
‘Turmoil, fear, uncertainty’
In the House Judiciary Committee, Democrats blasted Trump’s attempts to end DACA, which has protected from deportation and given work permits to more than 800,000 undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children.
Chairman Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., said that decision, which has been temporarily blocked by the courts, has “thrown hundreds of thousands of families into turmoil, fear and uncertainty.”
Nadler also blasted the Trump administration’s efforts to phase out the Temporary Protected Status program, which has allowed more than 300,000 foreigners from countries ravaged by wars and natural disasters to legally live and work in the U.S. Most program recipients, Nadler noted, have lived in the U.S. lawfully for more than two decades.
The hearing quickly became partisan, with Republicans accusing Democrats of favoring “blanket amnesty” and pursuing an “open border” strategy.
Democrats are trying to “undermine America’s sovereignty” and strain the U.S. to its limits by allowing massive levels of illegal immigration, said Rep. Ken Buck, R-Colo. He said the hearing was part of a “tragic open-border strategy being pushed by the left.”
‘Weaknesses’ in US law
In the Senate Judiciary Committee, Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin McAleenan placed most of the blamed for the spike in migrant families arriving at the border on U.S. immigration laws and court rulings.
That combination requires the U.S. government to release migrant families and children from Central America into the U.S. while they await the outcome of their cases, a policy that has encouraged more migrants to come, he said.
“These weaknesses in our laws now represent the most significant factors impacting border security,” he said.
He called for changes including allowing immigration agents to detain families together throughout until their asylum applications are completed.
Democrats pushed back, arguing dire conditions in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras are more to blame.
“What they face at home is so worrisome and so dangerous, they are literally willing to risk their lives to come to the United States,” said Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill.
Others argued the way to slow down asylum seekers should not be by making life miserable for others.
“It strikes me that if that is a policy and we are deliberately using something between discomfort, fear and cruelty as a policy mechanism to try and discourage people from coming to our country … it doesn’t seem very American,” said Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I.
McAleenan bristled at that comment, arguing that his agency is doing everything it can to accommodate a different flow of people.
“That is absolutely not the goal to deter through harsh treatment,” he said.
Roadblocks to hiring
In yet another hearing, John Kelly, acting DHS inspector general, told members of the Committee on Appropriations, Subcommittee on Homeland Security that the department faces huge obstacles in its mandate to hire 7,500 Customs and Border Protection officers, Border Patrol agents, and air and marine interdiction agents.
The hiring was required under two executive orders from Trump in 2017.
Training facilities are far from ready. Finding qualified applicants has been difficult, making it hard for Accenture Federal Services to carry out a $297 million contract to recruit and hire officers over five years. So far, the company has processed two accepted job offers.
“Our review determined that Accenture has not provided the promised hiring process or results, yet CBP has paid Accenture approximately $13.6 million for startup costs, security requirements, recruiting, and applicant support,” Kelly testified.