WASHINGTON _ Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen M. Nielsen sparred with newly empowered House Democrats on Wednesday over President Donald Trump's immigration policies, defending his recent misstatement that border apprehensions were at an all-time high.
Nielsen called upon Congress to address what she described as a growing emergency along the southern border even as Democrats pressed her to explain administration policies they condemned as inhumane and ineffective.
Nielsen defended Trump's recent misstatement that there were "never so many apprehensions ever in history" at the southern U.S. border. Apprehensions in the mid-2000s routinely reached more than 1 million migrants a year. In the fiscal year that ended in September, 521,090 people were apprehended or stopped at the border.
Nevertheless Nielsen refused to contradict the president, saying that in "some categories, we have had record-breaking apprehensions," such as in the category of families.
Nielsen's testimony came during a hearing in the House Homeland Security Committee, the highest-profile clash between the Trump administration and the House panel since Democrats took control of the chamber. It was one of three border-security-related hearings Wednesday on Capitol Hill.
Several heated exchanges between Nielsen and Democrats boiled down to a debate over semantics.
Rep. Kathleen Rice, D-N.Y., said the practice of separating children from their parents was an administration "policy," while Nielsen called it "law."
Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., said detained children were put in "cages," while Nielsen said they were put in areas "carved out for their safety and protection."
Nielsen implored Congress to take seriously the administration's controversial emergency declaration to build a wall, warning that the border is at a "breaking point." She cited the more than 76,000 people who crossed the border in February _ a 12-year high.
"Illegal immigration is simply spiraling out of control, threatening public safety and national security," she said. "We have tens of thousands of illegal aliens arriving at our doorstep every month. We have drugs, criminals and violence spilling into our country every week."
Before the hearing, Democrats suggested that a goal of the hearing was to get the administration on the record on its controversial policy of prosecuting adults who arrive at the border, resulting in the separation of children and their parents.
In response to questions from Democrats, Nielsen told lawmakers that no parents were deported from the United States without opportunities to take their children with them.
"There was no parent deported, to my knowledge, without multiple opportunities to take their children with them," she said.
