Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly cited border security, defeating transnational crime rings and domestic terrorist attacks as the three biggest problems facing his department, during an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday.
“I think really the biggest challenge is day in and day out and it’s a 24/7 thing,” Kelly told host Chuck Todd. “Protecting, securing the southern border certainly is very important, but just protecting your nation from transnational criminal organizations that are largely resident in the United States, but have tentacles outside the country. And then the terrorist threat, a potential terrorist threat, whether it’s home-grown or from overseas.”
Todd focused the interview on immigration policy, asking Kelly first how he defended a plan to hire 10,000 Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and 5,000 Customs and Border Protection agents as not a deportation force.
Kelly said it was a “law enforcement force” and that the significant number of planned new hires was mandated based on the “huge number” of illegal immigrants in the country who “have to be dealt with in one way or another.”
Kelly also defended his department and the Trump administration from criticism it has received from progressive groups on plans to carry out immigration laws that had been ignored under the Obama administration.
“But you have to remember that there’s a system, a legal justice system in place. And the law deports people. Secretary Kelly doesn’t. ICE doesn’t. It’s the United States criminal justice system or justice system that deports people,” Kelly said.
“The laws on the books are pretty straightforward. If you’re here illegally, you should leave or you should be deported, put through the system. But there are 11 million people and it’s very complicated,” added Kelly.
While illegal entrants from Central American countries have been a steady contributor to illegal immigration over the past decade, Kelly said visa overstays is a “large” problem that must be dealt with by interior agents or ICE.
Kelly denied a report earlier this week that DHS plans to either eliminate or reform the polygraph test used when hiring new Border Patrol agents.
