DHS leader claims less than 1,000 family separations; admits Clint overcrowding

A top Trump administration official said Thursday the number of family separations at the border has fallen since last summer’s zero tolerance policy, and they are done only for compelling reasons. He also acknowledged that the troubled Clint border station facility in El Paso County is “absolutely overcrowded.”

Acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan said fewer than 1,000 children have been separated from families out of 450,000 family groups that have crossed the border since October. He said they are separated because of health and safety concerns, among other reasons.

“The vast majority” of families are kept together, he said.

Meantime, McAleenan admitted that the Customs and Border Protection station being used to house migrant children in Clint “absolutely was overcrowded.” But despite repeated criticisms, he maintained agents were doing their best, adding that “it’s really challenging when you’re that overwhelmed.”

“Clint had 700 kids in custody at one point,” he told lawmakers. “As kids were arriving from the border, sometimes 200 in a single day, they’re coming in after a difficult journey, held in squalid conditions by smugglers — they’re going to have dirty clothes. But guess what, we have laundry there. We’re washing their clothes, we’re giving them new clothes.”

McAleenan continued, “Clint station has added additional showers to make sure that every kid can take a shower within the first 24 hours of when they arrive at that station and it’s been a huge effort on behalf of those men and women to do their absolute level best to take care of children.”

McAleenan was speaking Thursday before the House Oversight Committee investigating border problems. His testimony comes amid a growing outcry over the treatment of migrants at the border, an internal investigation into Border Patrol agents who posted crude and mocking posts in a secret Facebook group and the move this week to effectively end asylum on the U.S.-Mexico border.

Lawmakers mostly questioned McAleenan about the policy that led to the separation of more than 2,700 children from parents last year. A watchdog report later found thousands more may have been separated. Democrats and Republicans on the committee also traded barbs over emergency border funding and the moment the massive numbers of border crossings became a crisis.

“As I have testified and warned publicly, dozens of times this year and last, we are facing an unprecedented crisis at the border,” McAleenan told the committee.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials have encountered more than 800,000 migrants crossing the border from Mexico. Over 450,000 were families.

“Combined, that means over 300,000 children have entered our custody since October 1st,” he said.

Oversight Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings, a Maryland Democrat, said McAleenan was an architect of the family separations. McAleenan wrongly called reports of filthy, overcrowded border facilities “unsubstantiated,” Cummings said.

“The administration wants to blame Democrats for this crisis, but it is the Trump administration’s own policies that are causing these problems,” Cummings said.

Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez questioned McAleenan about the Border Patrol Facebook posts, some of which were graphic, doctored images of the New York Democrat.

Ocasio-Cortez asked whether the agents were still on duty and wondered whether the family separation policy had contributed to a “dehumanizing culture.”

McAleenan said some had been placed on administrative duty but didn’t elaborate.

“We do not have a dehumanizing culture,” McAleenan responded.

Lawmakers didn’t question McAleenan on the new asylum rules. But the new policy is by far the biggest change to how the U.S. handles immigrants. Under the new rules, anyone who comes to the U.S.-Mexico border through another country would not be eligible for asylum. They could affect tens of thousands of people who cross the border each month. There are thousands more on waiting lists at ports of entry who will now likely be denied asylum.

The new rules come into play during an initial asylum screening that happens after a migrant is first encountered by Border Patrol, so they won’t make an immediate dent in overcrowding at border facilities. The rules also must survive a legal challenge.

The number of border crossings dropped last month amid hot weather and a crackdown by Mexico on migrants to its southern border.

McAleenan said facilities are less crowded, especially for children who are only supposed to be held in border holding stations for 72 hours. Delays along the entire immigration system have forced migrants to wait in crowded border facilities not meant to hold people for more than a few days.