Former Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson on Thursday reflected on the Obama administration’s efforts to expand the federal government’s capacity to hold families in detention over their immigration status, admitting that it was “controversial.”
“In 2014, to deal with the spike then with the families, we did a number of things, including, by the way, working with the government of Mexico and obtaining their cooperation in securing their southern border,” Johnson said during an interview on MSNBC’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports.”
“We also expanded family detention which was, I freely admit, controversial. We got a lot of heat for it,” Johnson continued, saying he made “a big deal” about it to prove the administration wasn’t simply catching and releasing illegal immigrants while they awaited hearings.
But Johnson said lessons were learned from the measures taken under the Obama presidency.
“Illegal migration reacts sharply to perceived changes in enforcement policy in the short term,” he added. “It reverts back longer term to the longer term trends given the underlying conditions, the so-called ‘push factors’ in Central America. So that is what President Trump and his administration has seen.”
Johnson also slammed current DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen for not working more closely with the Department of Health and Human Services, which houses illegal migrant children.
“That’s a little extraordinary,” he said. “When we had the spike in 2014, we were working daily with HHS to make sure we had a seamless process.”
