WASHINGTON -- Kirstjen Nielsen, the homeland security secretary, on Wednesday implored Congress to confront what she called a "humanitarian catastrophe" on the southern border by supporting President Donald Trump's call for a wall and changing laws to crack down on asylum-seekers and illegal border-crossers.
In her first congressional appearance since Democrats took control of the House, Nielsen was defiant in the face of criticism of the administration for its treatment of migrant families at the border, especially its decision last summer to separate children from their parents.
"Our capacity is already severely strained, but these increases will overwhelm the system entirely," Nielsen told members of the House Homeland Security Committee. "This is not a manufactured crisis. This is truly an emergency."
Democrats demanded that Nielsen address the chaos that followed the family separation decision, the deaths of migrant children in federal custody and Trump's claim of a national emergency at the border that he has said requires construction of a border wall.
Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., the committee's chairman, said he hoped Nielsen would not simply parrot Trump's assertions about how a border wall would prevent a crisis.
"The secretary can choose whether to be complicit in this administration's misinformation campaign," Thompson said, "or she can correct the record."
In her prepared remarks, Nielsen echoed Trump's repeated claims that the United States is eager to welcome people who arrive legally, and that the U.S. granted asylum and refugee status to more individuals in 2017 than any other country in the world.
Democrats were expected to challenge Nielsen on the administration's efforts to dramatically slow the entry of legal immigrants. Critics say the surge of families trying to enter the United States illegally is partly the result of the Trump administration's decisions to slow the processing of asylum claims at legal ports of entry, forcing families to come into the United States elsewhere on the border.
Nielsen applauded the president's demand for a wall. She also urged lawmakers to pass legislation that would allow the indefinite detention of families and to more easily turn back claims of asylum by migrants from Central America, who have been arriving in record numbers at the southern border.
Asked by Thompson if migrant families have been separated, and adults deported back to their countries without their children, Nielsen said yes. She added that those relatives are given the option to return to their countries with their children.
"To the best of my knowledge, every parent was afforded that option," Nielsen said.
Rep. Kathleen Rice, D-N.Y., pressed Nielsen on whether she supported the policy.
"We do have the legal authority to do it, as I understand," Nielsen said. She added that she discussed the zero-tolerance policy with then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions before he announced it.
"Were you aware the zero-tolerance policy would lead to minors being separated from their parents?" Rice asked.
"As a consequence for a parent going to jail, we in this country do not take the children to jail," Nielsen responded.
"I take that as a yes," Rice said.
Rep. Lauren Underwood, D-Ill., the committee's vice chairman, asked Nielsen whether she knew of the impact family separation would have on the health of children.
"Tearing kids and their parents apart is immoral, ma'am," said Underwood, a trained nurse. "It's un-American and it's just plain wrong."
The practice, part of a zero-tolerance immigration policy that drew swift condemnation after it was publicly announced last spring, quickly became a symbol of the president's crackdown on illegal immigration.
Around that time, Nielsen repeatedly denied that the Department of Homeland Security had a policy of routinely separating migrant children from their parents at the border despite mounting evidence that thousands of families had been broken apart. During a news conference in June at the White House, she said she was offended by accusations that she would authorize separating children from their parents to send a message of deterrence.
But the department continued to separate families until Trump, facing public pressure, signed an executive order meant to end the policy.
"No amount of verbal gymnastics will change that she knew the Trump administration was implementing a policy to separate families at the border," Thompson said. "To make matters worse, the administration bungled implementation of its cruel plan, losing track of children and even deporting parents to Central America without their children."
Customs and Border Protection data released Tuesday showed that more than 76,000 migrant families crossed the southwestern border without authorization in February. That is more than double the levels from the same period last year.
The new figure could help Trump make the case that there truly is a national emergency at the border -- albeit one built around humanitarian crises and not necessarily border security.
The Senate is expected to vote next week and join the House in rejecting Trump's national emergency declaration aimed at building border walls, but Trump would almost certainly veto the measure, and the issue is likely to be settled in the courts.
"Today's migrant flows have created a humanitarian catastrophe," Nielsen said Wednesday in her opening remarks, citing the violence that migrants face on their way to the border. "Smugglers and traffickers are forcing migrants into inhumane conditions, demanding extraordinary sums of money, and putting their lives in danger. And vulnerable populations -- especially children -- are coming into [Homeland Security] custody sicker than ever before."
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders weighed in on the hearing via Twitter: "The crisis at our border is no secret," she wrote. Democrats are "just choosing to ignore it."
The hearing was one of three at the Capitol on immigration Wednesday.
As Nielsen spoke to the House, Customs and Border Commissioner Kevin McAleenan presented a slide show to the Senate Judiciary Committee that highlighted the growing number of groups with at least 100 people in remote areas like the New Mexico Bootheel and Ajo, Ariz., and the unprecedented challenges of attending to medical needs at its short-term holding facilities.
Homeland Security's top internal watchdog official, John Roth, was also testifying Wednesday, as was James McHenry, a Justice Department official who oversees clogged immigration courts.
Today, Customs and Border Protection officials will testify about challenges of hiring and recruiting Border Patrol agents, including a contract worth up to $297 million for consulting firm Accenture. The firm recruited only two agents during its first 10 months of the contract.
Information for this article was contributed by Zolan Kanno-Youngs and Michael D. Shear of The New York Times; and by Colleen Long and Elliot Spagat of The Associated Press.
A Section on 03/07/2019