Nielsen defends family separations: 'We will not apologize for doing our job’

Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said Monday that the agency “will not apologize“ for doing its job amid the public outcry over the thousands of children who are being separated from their parents as they illegally cross the border.

“We have to do our job. We will not apologize for doing our job. We have sworn to do this job,” Nielsen said at the annual conference of the National Sheriffs’ Association in New Orleans.


Nielsen’s comments come after she was criticized for tweeting that the Department of Homeland Security does “not have a policy of separating families at the border. Period.”

While DHS may not have explicit rules on family separations, the practice is a direct outgrowth of the Trump administration’s “zero-tolerance” policy of prosecuting all undocumented immigrants caught illegally crossing into the United States.

That tweet also came the same weekend that lawmakers and reporters were allowed to tour facilities in South Texas where children separated from their parents were being held. Photos went viral from the facilities that showed children in cages, lying on green mats and using Mylar sheets for bedding.

“We do not have the luxury of pretending that all individuals coming to this country as a family unit are, in fact, a family,” Nielsen said Monday, later adding that the department has “seen a staggering 315 percent increase“ in undocumented immigrants “fraudulently using children to pose as family units to gain entry into this country.”

Nielsen went on to say that DHS will prosecute all immigrants who come over the border illegally.

“This administration has a simple message: If you cross the border illegally, we will prosecute you. If you make a false immigration claim, we will prosecute you. If you smuggle illegal aliens across an extraordinarily dangerous journey, we will prosecute you,” she said.

She said, however, that she has encouraged immigrants to seek asylum through a port of entry along the border.

“But I have also made clear you do not need to break the law of this country by entering illegally to claim asylum. If you are seeking asylum, go to a port of entry,” Nielsen said.