Stop migrants

Nielsen: ‘Every option is on the table’ to stop migrants at border

By TED HESSON

Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, under heavy pressure from within the Trump administration to reduce illegal immigration, said Friday that “every option is on the table“ to halt the flow of migrants to the southwest border.

Speaking at a recently completed 30-foot section of border wall in Calexico, Calif., Nielsen said the administration will announce in the coming days measures to address a caravan of Central American migrants traveling through Mexico en route to the United States.

"We are looking at every possible way, within the legal construct that we have, to make sure that those who do not have a legal right to enter this country are not coming,“ she said. “Everything is on the table."

President Donald Trump has put immigration at the center of his closing argument for the midterm elections, attempting to rile up the Republican base with dire warnings about thousands of Central American migrants trekking north. Over the past two weeks, Trump has threatened to cut funding to Central American countries, pull out of a trade deal with Mexico and increase the military presence at the border, if the caravan can’t be stopped.

Whether the caravan, or levels of illegal immigration generally, represent any true crisis is a matter of considerable debate. Although the number of family members intercepted at the border has climbed to record highs, the overall tally of arrests at the U.S.-Mexico border remains below Obama-era levels, and far below levels in the 1990s and early aughts.

Nielsen, the top official overseeing the immigration system, has received blistering criticism from the president over her failure to stem the migration flow — a matter over which the government has at best little control. Nielsen's job performance was the subject of a heated exchange last week outside the Oval Office between National Security Adviser John Bolton, who criticized Nielsen, and Chief of Staff John Kelly, who defended her. Nielsen previously worked directly under Kelly at DHS and the White House.

Nielsen has come under scrutiny outside the White House as well. Asked Thursday night by Lou Dobbs of Fox Business News whether Nielsen has failed to do her job, Brandon Judd, president of the Border Patrol union, said, "She's not holding these people pending their deportation proceedings, so I would say yes." The union has consistently pressed for tougher border enforcement.

In response to such barbs, Nielsen has toughened her rhetoric. In a Fox News interview Thursday night, she said, "We do not have any intention right now to shoot at people, but they will be apprehended."

The White House is weighing a number of options to deter asylum seekers. One of the most sweeping, POLITICO reported Thursday, would be a fast-track regulation and presidential proclamation that would bar certain asylum seekers. Another option under consideration is a surge in troops to the border. Roughly 2,100 National Guard members have already been deployed there as part of a request made by Trump in April.

The border measures come alongside other pitches geared to mobilize the GOP base, including a promised tax cut for middle-income Americans and an overhaul of Medicare to lower drug prices.

Nielsen confirmed Friday that DHS requested engineering and logistical support from the Defense Department to secure the border. She said the request may include construction and maintenance of vehicle barriers and pedestrian barriers, but she offered few details beyond that.

General Terrence O'Shaughnessy, chief of U.S. Northern Command, is working with the department to meet its needs, Nielsen said.

Before Nielsen's remarks, Border Patrol agents soldered a plaque to part of the two-mile stretch of replacement wall that included the names of Trump and Nielsen, along with those of U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin McAleenan and other border officials.

In a question-and-answer session after her remarks, Nielsen fielded a query about whether the towering structure — see-through and composed of bollard posts — was a wall or a fence.

"To me, this looks like a wall. It's 30-feet tall," Nielsen said. She added that the barrier was part of a broader wall “system” that included personnel, technology and roads.

"It's a wall. This is what the president has asked us to do,” Nielsen said. The new structure cost an estimated $21 million, according to CBP.

Nielsen pressed Congress to fund the president’s signature wall and to change immigration laws to discourage asylum seekers.

“These catch-and-release loopholes have led to our current border and humanitarian crisis, by providing dramatic pull factors to this country,” she said.

Nielsen was joined at the event by McAleenan, Border Patrol chief Carla Provost and Gloria Chavez, chief of the El Centro sector of the border.