Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen has deployed Justice Department prosecutors and judges, as well as asylum officers and immigration attorneys from DHS, to the southwest border ahead of the arrival of the Central American migrant caravan.
“DHS, in partnership with DOJ, is taking a number of steps to ensure that all cases and claims are adjudicated promptly – including sending additional USCIS asylum officers, ICE attorneys, DOJ Immigration Judges, and DOJ prosecutors to the southern border,” Nielsen said in a statement issued Monday afternoon. It did not state when or where sub-groups of the caravan were expected to arrive.
The DHS chief warned Central American migrants traveling as part of a caravan through Mexico to the U.S. that any person caught illegally crossing into the country will be prosecuted and deported.
“DHS continues to monitor the remnants of the ‘caravan’ of individuals headed to our Southern border with the apparent intention of entering the United States illegally,” Nielsen added. “If you enter the United States illegally, let me be clear: you have broken the law. And we will enforce the law through prosecution of illegal border crossers.”
President Trump directed Nielsen on Monday to block large groups of migrants who have begun to arrive at the border.
“Despite the Democrat-inspired laws on Sanctuary Cities and the Border being so bad and one sided, I have instructed the Secretary of Homeland Security not to let these large Caravans of people into our Country. It is a disgrace. We are the only Country in the World so naive! WALL,” Trump tweeted.
Trump said negotiations over a new North American Free Trade Agreement must include language that prevents Central Americans from getting into Mexico through its southern border.
“Mexico, whose laws on immigration are very tough, must stop people from going through Mexico and into the U.S. We may make this a condition of the new NAFTA Agreement. Our Country cannot accept what is happening! Also, we must get Wall funding fast,” Trump added.
About 50 people in the 1,500-person caravan of Central Americans traveling to the U.S. to seek asylum have made the 2,000-mile trip to the border city of Tijuana, Mexico, according to multiple reports late last week.
The DHS chief said those seeking asylum should expect to be detained by U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, as is standard procedure.
DHS has partnered with Justice officials to send additional U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services officers, ICE attorneys, DOJ immigration judges, and DOJ prosecutors to the southwest border in order to quickly process what it expects to be surge of arrivals.
