In testimony before the House Homeland Security Committee, Jeh Johnson, the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, said the government needs to do more to clear up the misperception that illegal aliens can get a free pass to stay if they make it across the southern border. Republicans on the committee argued the Administration’s policies created that perception.
Johnson said smuggling organizations are creating misinformation that there’s a ‘permisos,’ or free pass” to induce parents to send their kids. “What is critical is we correct the record, we straighten the misperceptions,” Johnson said. People who are detained are immediately told they will be assigned to a deportation hearing, Johnson said. “That’s not a free pass.” But Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., said “A five-year old child getting an order to show up in immigration court… are you going to actually deport that child? To me it is a free pass, from their perspective.” Johnson said he did not know the percentage of unaccompanied alien children (UACs) in removal proceedings who are actually removed, and admitted that UACs are being placed with illegal-alien family members already in the U.S.
Johnson said that Administration policies were not responsible for the border surge but Committee Chairman Michael McCaul, R-Tex., disagreed. “What is new is a series of executive actions by the administration to grant immigration benefits to children outside the purview of the law – a relaxed enforcement posture – along with talk of comprehensive immigration reform,” McCaul said. “This is a crisis that has been in the making for years – one that we should have seen coming – but few concrete actions have been taken. The Department of Homeland Security, and the U.S. government as a whole, has been slow to act, turning a blind eye to the warning signs…This administration should send an unambiguous message that those arriving will be promptly sent home. I, for one, do not want to see another child harmed because we have not clearly articulated the realities on the ground, consistent with current law.
Johnson said the illegal aliens from non-contiguous countries could not immediately be sent home because of a law that prohibits it. Alluding to the Administration’s propensity to exceed its authority under the law, Chairman Rogers asked why the president doesn't issue an executive order to supersede that law. "Last I checked, an executive order can't supersede the law," Johnson responded.
The Secretary outlined plans to: add Customs and Border Patrol Agents in South Texas; increase detention capacity and judges to deal with the influx; and supplement investigative personnel in an effort to dismantle smuggling organizations that bring illegal aliens to the U.S. He also said UACs will be given legal representation. The Administration has no plans to deploy the National Guard at this point.
Following the Administration’s announcement that it will send lawyers and judges to the border to fast-track the removal of illegal aliens, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., wrote President Obama to ask whether any provisions in current law will act as roadblocks to achieving that goal.
The letter said a recent statement by Deputy Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas “begs the question as to whether the federal government can actually obtain removal orders against these aliens or otherwise remove them. The Safe Passage Immigration Project, a division of the Justice Action Center at New York Law School that works with volunteer attorneys and New York Law School students to provide representation to unaccompanied alien minors in the immigration process, states that ‘[o]ur organization . . . finds that nearly 90 percent of the unaccompanied minors we meet who are facing deportation qualify for immigration relief, allowing them to remain in the United States legally.’”
Goodlatte asked the Administration to propose specific legislative changes to remove any impediments to deportation, and to request the needed financial resources to get it done.
