Former DHS secretary says 'We might be at the doorstep' of another family separation crisis at border
Former Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said Saturday that the large number Central and South American migrants apprehended trying to cross into the U.S. has gotten to the point where he expressed concern of a repeat of last year's family separation crisis.
Johnson was referring to a letter sent this week by his successor, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, asking Congress for the authority to return unaccompanied minors from Central America — currently numbered at more than 1,200, per Nielsen — back to their home countries in a"safe and orderly manner if they have no legal right to stay.
"We're on pace, this month, for 100,000 apprehensions," noted Johnson, who said that the highest level of apprehensions he saw during his time at DHS was 65,000 people in May 2014."So this is a crisis. It's very definitely a crisis. There are ways to deal with this, there are answers — there are no easy answers — the one thing that we should not do, as Americans, is send a 7-year-old, an 8-year-old, an unaccompanied child back to Central America without due process.
"What is driving this and how do you address it?" posed Johnson."Very clearly, what is driving it now are the continued underlying conditions in Central America, the poverty and the violence there. That is always an overwhelming factor in illegal migration, and there's no level of border security that you can throw at that problem to act as a complete deterrent, as long as the underlying conditions exist.
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