Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen visits El Paso to address “Crisis” at Border

Today, the Secretary of Homeland Security, Kirstjen Nielsen, began a three-city border tour. Her first stop was El Paso.

Nielsen visited three different sites, to assess what she calls a ‘crisis’ at the southern border.

Nielsen visited the Paso Del Norte Port of Entry, The Border Patrol Station at Hondo Pass, and also a processing facility. She met with front line operators to help them ‘restore order”. This as President Donald Trump threatens to shut down the border because of the record-setting influx of migrants. A move El Paso’ss mayor feels is a bad idea

Mayor Dee Margo said, “Any shutdown would be crippling to this economy in El Paso, in Texas, and in the nation frankly.”

According to the Federal Reserve of Dallas, El Paso had $103 billion dollars in total trade with Mexico last year alone. Former Border Patrol Chief Victor Manjarrez doesn’t believe the shutdown will happen.

Manjarrez told ABC 7’s Christina Aguayo, “If we could shut the border down we would have done it 40 years ago. This was done to force a reaction, to force the government of Mexico to take some kind of action.

The Department of Homeland Security said El Paso’s Customs and Border Protection sector is 280% over capacity with more than 3,400 people in custody.

Secretary Nielsen’s motorcade arrived at a border patrol station to address the quote “humanitarian and security emergency.”

Manjarrez said, he approved, ” I like the idea that she’s here today, she’s hitting three areas that are really key, and El Paso traditionally has been one of the key stops.”

DHS predicted the record-setting number of migrants to top 100,000 encounters and apprehensions last month alone

“When you see these numbers and you see 100,000 and that they’re non-Mexican Nationals,” Manjarrez said, “God that puts a horrific strain on the capabilities and capacities of CBP”

Last week, hundreds of migrants were housed under the Santa Fe bridge due to overcrowding. Now they’re being bused to tents at the same border patrol station secretary Nielsen visited in the northeast.

Mayor Margo said he wants Congress to take action saying, “I wish they’d quit fooling around with the Mueller report and do something constructive with immigration reform”