Washington : The Trump administration today defended its controversial "zero tolerance" border policy of separating immigrant parents and their children on the US border, and alleged that Democrats do not want to have a comprehensive solution to the current immigration crisis. According to the Department of Homeland Security, under President Trump's "zero-tolerance" immigration policy, nearly 2,000 children have been separated from their parents and guardians and placed into holding facilities between April 19 and May 31 of this year.
"This entire crisis, just to be clear, is not new. It's been occurring and expanded over many decades. But currently, it is the exclusive product of loopholes in our federal immigration laws that prevent illegal immigrant minors and family members from being detained and removed to their home countries," Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen told reporters at a White House news conference. In other words, these loopholes create a functionally open border, she said, noting that apprehension without detention and removal is not border security.
"We have repeatedly called on Congress to close these loopholes," Nielsen said. She said that in the last three months, illegal immigration on southern border exceed 50,000 people each month. Since last year, there has been a 325 per cent increase in unaccompanied alien children and a 435 per cent increase in family units entering the country illegally. "Over the last 10 years, there has been a 1,700 per cent increase in asylum claims, resulting in asylum backlog to date, on our country, of 600,000 cases," Nielsen said. PTI
