Rep. Tony Cardenas (D-Calif.) said the meeting with DHS Secretary John Kelly was "pretty damn frustrating." | Getty Democrats slam DHS secretary after closed-door meeting

Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly struck a defiant tone in a meeting with House Democrats Friday, lawmakers said, telling them he's "the best thing to happen" to immigrants brought here as minors — and if members don't like current laws, they should change them.

"I'm the best thing that happened to DACA.... it is still on the books," Kelly said, referring to Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, the Obama-era program that shields undocumented immigrants brought here as children from deportation.


"If you don't like the law we are enforcing, and I don't like many of them, please, please, please change the law," Kelly added, according to multiple sources in the room.

This was the first meeting for House Democrats with a cabinet-level official in President Donald Trump’s administration and came after relations have further frayed over the White House crackdown on undocumented immigrants.

A number of Democrats left the caucus-wide confab visibly frustrated, saying Kelly wasn't providing substantive answers to questions and describing him as “belligerent,” “tense” and “rude.”

"He's literally talking in circles," said Rep. Tony Cardenas (D-Calif.), who said he left the meeting early because he couldn’t handle Kelly’s attitude. "It's pretty damn frustrating."

DHS spokesman David Lapan, who accompanied Kelly, said lawmakers' characterizations are "not descriptive of the meeting."

"Secretary Kelly spent an hour with more than 100 House Democrats in response to their request and to answer as many questions as he could in the time allotted," Lapan wrote in an email. "In addition to responding to questions, he committed to continue to engage with them."

Democratic leaders had been pushing for the sit-down with Kelly after a number of rank-and-file Democrats were kicked out of a meeting with immigration officials last month. But Democrats said Kelly showed up Friday without specific answers to the dozens of letters lawmakers have sent to DHS, which received no replies.

“To not even get a response,” said House Democratic Caucus Vice Chair Linda Sánchez (Calif.), “we feel like we are sending letters into a black hole.”

The meeting mostly focused on recent White House efforts to expand immigration enforcement, which members fear could lead to mass deportations.

But lawmakers also brought up the reworked executive order banning refugees and citizens from six majority-Muslim countries. Two federal courts in Hawaii and Maryland ruled against the travel ban this week, halting the order for now.

Kelly rejected lawmakers’ assertions that the executive order is a “Muslim ban” and said the administration planned to defend the order all the way to the Supreme Court.

The DHS chief was defensive and “incredulous,” lawmakers said, when told some of his agents weren’t following the law in pursuing certain undocumented immigrants.

He pushed back on the idea that agents were rounding up undocumented immigrants at churches and schools, despite being presented with photos of a Customs and Border Protection van on church grounds. Kelly said schools and churches were sensitive areas that were not targeted by immigration agents, but "courtrooms are a different story."

The retired general said his department was focused on immigrants with criminal records and rejected the notion that he controls who gets deported.

“The Department of Homeland Security does not deport anyone,” Kelly said, according to sources in the room. “The law and the judges of the United States” do that, he added.

But Democrats left the meeting saying it was clear Kelly had a “pass the buck” mentality, even telling lawmakers he’s “not a lawyer” when asked if he thought DACA is recognized as the rule of the law by DHS.

"I can guarantee you we're not going after kids that are fully DACA qualified,” Kelly said, prompting audible scoffs from members in the room.

"Give me a break will you?" he responded, according to sources.

Kelly also stood firm on an idea he floated recently to separate women and their children at the border and put the kids into foster care, according to multiple members.

"Everything will remain on the table," Kelly said, spurring cries of "no" from the caucus, according to multiple sources.

"It was a very military presentation" when members were looking for "a little humanity," Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.) said after.

House Democratic Caucus Chairman Joe Crowley (N.Y.) said the former Marine Corps general treated lawmakers like they were "plebes" in boot camp.

Grijalva also asked Kelly about Iowa GOP Rep. Steve King’s widely-criticized remark that “we can’t restore our civilization with somebody else’s babies.”

“I don't know what he said but I know there was a controversy,” Kelly said, prompting shouts of “come on!” from lawmakers, according to sources.

It’s “certainly not my position and not how we're going about" enforcement at DHS, Kelly added. But the DHS chief said that he was executing "a different philosophical approach" than his predecessor in the Obama administration, Jeh Johnson.

Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.), one of the lawmakers booted from the February meeting with ICE officials, wasn't mollified after questioning Kelly.

“As long as they see Latinos as criminals, as a threat, as a ‘threat to their civilization,’ I think it makes it impossible to sit down,” he said.