THE HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY attended the White House press conference yesterday to deliver numbers on illegal immigration. The numbers Secretary Nielsen gave are appalling!

Nielsen called out Bush: Frankly, this law was actually signed into effect in 2008 under (Laura Bush’s) husband’s leadership, not under this administration,” Sanders said during Monday’s press briefing.

“We’re not the ones responsible for creating this problem. We’ve inherited it,” she added. “But we’re actually the first administration stepping up and trying to fix it.”

This will backfire on the Democrats: Nielsen said, “Calling attention to this matter is important. This is a very serious issue that has resulted after years and years of Congress not taking action,” she said.

“So I would thank them both for their comments, I would thank them both for their concerns. I share their concerns,” she continued. “But congress is the one that needs to fix this.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=credsM8JWZU

We found a great explanation for what’s going on: NOTE 1997

Rich Lowry explains:

When a migrant is prosecuted for illegal entry, he or she is taken into custody by the U.S. Marshals. . . . The child is taken into the custody of HHS, who cares for them at temporary shelters.

The criminal proceedings are exceptionally short, assuming there is no aggravating factor such as a prior illegal entity or another crime. The migrants generally plead guilty, and they are then sentenced to time served, typically all in the same day, although practices vary along the border. After this, they are returned to the custody of ICE.

If the adult then wants to go home, in keeping with the expedited order of removal that is issued as a matter of course, it’s relatively simple. The adult should be reunited quickly with his or her child, and the family returned home as a unit. In this scenario, there’s only a very brief separation.

Where it becomes much more of an issue is if the adult files an asylum claim. In that scenario, the adults are almost certainly going to be detained longer than the government is allowed to hold their children. That’s because of something called the Flores Consent Decree from 1997. It says that unaccompanied children can be held only 20 days.