Sen. Jeff Merkley Jeffrey (Jeff) Alan MerkleyThe Hill's Morning Report - Sponsored by The Air Line Pilots Association - Trump, Biden renew push for Latino support Sunday shows - Trump team defends coronavirus response Oregon senator says Trump's blame on 'forest management' for wildfires is 'just a big and devastating lie' MORE (D-Ore.) said on Monday that he is asking for the FBI to investigate Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen Kirstjen Michele NielsenDHS IG won't investigate after watchdog said Wolf, Cuccinelli appointments violated law Appeals court sides with Trump over drawdown of immigrant protections Democrats smell blood with new DHS whistleblower complaint MORE for possible perjury because he is "sick and tired" of the administration "lying" to Congress.

"I am just sick and tired of this administration lying to the American people, lying to Congress, doing it under oath and it's time for some real accountability," Merkley told CNN's "New Day."

"I am just sick and tired of this administration lying to the American people, lying to Congress." @SenJeffMerkley explains his reasons for requesting the FBI investigate DHS Sec. Nielsen, adding, “it's time for some real accountability." https://t.co/SZ0yyt3GmO pic.twitter.com/MfjTyQakB7 — New Day (@NewDay) January 21, 2019

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Merkley sent the bureau a request on Friday asking it to probe Nielsen for potentially lying to Congress. He said on Monday that that FBI had not yet responded to his request, but "this is the official, right way to initiate a referral to the FBI for a pursuit of an investigation regarding perjury."

Merkley, in his letter to the FBI, said that "compelling new evidence has emerged revealing that high-level Department of Homeland Security officials were secretly and actively developing a new policy and legal framework for separating families as far back as December 2017."

Merkley's office gave NBC News a December 2017 draft document last week of what would eventually become the White House’s immigration policy.

In the draft, administration officials discussed targeting parents of migrant families with prosecution as a deterrent, saying the “increase in prosecutions would be reported by the media and would have a substantial deterrent effect.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), according to the draft, was also “considering separating family units, placing the adults in adult detention and placing the minors under the age of 18 in the custody of [the Department of Health and Human Services] as unaccompanied alien children.”

DHS spokeswoman Katie Waldman said in a statement to The Hill late last week that the department "has never had a blanket policy of separating families in custody."

"What this pre-decisional, pre-deliberative memo — as well as previously leaked pre-decisional, pre-deliberative documents — shows is that the Secretary was provided a menu of options to prevent the humanitarian crisis we predicted at that time and which has manifested itself today," Waldman said.

She added that Nielsen "specifically rejected a policy proposal to separate all family units in DHS custody."