Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen on Tuesday battled Senate Democrats who insisted the DHS has a policy of separating families at the border, which Nielsen rejected by saying the policy is only to prosecute lawbreakers.
At a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing on border security, Nielsen said the DHS doesn’t treat illegal immigrants who break the law any differently from U.S. citizens who break the law. In both cases, she said, people are prosecuted and therefore can be separated from their families while that happens.
“We do not have a policy to separate children from their parents. Our policy is if you break the law, we will prosecute you. You have an option to go to a port of entry and not illegally cross into our country,” Nielsen told Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., after being pressed on family separation.
Nielsen told Harris she was not directed to separate families at the border as a way to deter illegal immigration, and said family separation is incidental to the prosecution of illegal immigrants.
“My decision has been that anyone who breaks the law will be prosecuted,” she said. “If you’re a parent or you’re a single person or you happen to have a family, if you cross between the ports of entry, we will refer you for prosecution. You’ve broken U.S. law.”
She also said children are sent to the Department of Health and Human Services for custody when their parents are guardians are being prosecuted, and told Harris she would get more information about the details of this arrangement.
Chairman Ron Johnson, R-Wis., asked if a single-parent U.S. citizen who was arrested inside the country on a drug distribution charge would be treated the same way by local law enforcement as a single-parent noncitizen who was arrested by Customs and Border Protection officers after being caught illegally entering the country.
“The idea here is to make sure the now-unaccompanied children, or the children whose parent is incarcerated because the parent broke a law, are cared for. We transfer those to HHS,” Nielsen said.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced May 6 that all illegal entrants would be prosecuted, including those caught with children who they claim are their own offspring.
The announcement made national news because of Sessions’ statement that prosecuting adults would lead to the separation of minors and adults who were apprehended together. However, the separation of pairs is not new, only the intention to more thoroughly prosecute offenders is new.
