Former Obama era Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson admitted Friday that the crisis along the southern U.S. border that the Trump administration has been warning about for years is 100 percent real and not “manufactured,” as some among the far-left have alleged.
“When I was in office in [current DHS Secretary] Kirstjen Nielsen’s job at her desk, I’d get to work around 6:30 in the morning and there’d be my intelligence book sitting on my desk, the PDB, and also the apprehension numbers from the day before,” he revealed on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”
“And I’d look at them every memory morning, it would be the first thing I’d look at, and I probably got too close to the problem. And my staff will tell you, if it was under 1,000 apprehensions the day before, that was a relatively good number. And if it was above 1,000, it was a relatively bad number and I was going to be in a bad mood the whole day.”
Makes sense. Now fast-forward to this week, when DHS reported that over 4,000 illegal aliens were apprehended crossing the border on Monday and then again on Tuesday.
#CBP saw the highest total of apprehensions and encounters in over a decade on Monday, with 4,000 migrants either apprehended or encountered at ports of entry in a single day. Yesterday, that record was broken again—4,117 in a single day. pic.twitter.com/muQmDfat3L
— CBP (@CBP) March 27, 2019
“The breaking point has arrived,” U.S. Customs and Border Protection commissioner Kevin McAleenan said at a press conference Wednesday in El Paso. “CBP is facing an unprecedented humanitarian and border security crisis all along our Southwest border — and nowhere has that crisis manifested more acutely than here in El Paso.”
Johnson appears to agree.
“On Tuesday there were 4,000 apprehensions. I know that a thousand overwhelms the system. I cannot begin to imagine what 4,000 a day looks like. So we are truly in a crisis,” he said.
Welcome to the party …
Listen, and note the look of shock on MSNBC host Mika Brzezinski’s face:
As a Democrat, however, he disagrees with the best strategy moving forward.
“I noted that the secretary’s letter describes it as a ‘meltdown,’ so the question is what is driving this and how do you address it,” he said, referring to an “urgent request’ submitted this week to Congress by Nielsen asking for assistance to deal with the ongoing “system-wide meltdown.”
“Very clearly, what is driving it now are the continued underlying conditions in Central America — the poverty and violence there. That is always an overwhelming factor in a legal migration, and there is no level of border security that you can throw at that problem to act as a complete deterrent, as long as the underlying conditions exist.”
It’s not surprising that Johnson, once a member of former President Barack Hussein Obama’s pro-migration administration, believes that more border security isn’t the solution, never mind a mountain of evidence showing that enhanced border security — including the construction of a wall — would greatly reduce border crossings and thus stymie the flow of illegals.
It’s also not surprising that the Obama era DHS secretary has chosen to blame the migration on the conditions in Central America versus the actions of Democrats, who’ve, one, incentivized illegal migration by offering illegals freebies galore, and two, blocked both President Donald Trump and Secretary Nielsen’s every attempt to secure the border and get a hold of the situation.
In the letter Nielsen wrote this week to Congress, she implored Congress to provide her agency with “additional temporary facilities as soon as possible in order to” process and house arriving illegals. It’s because of Democrats that she’s in this quandary to begin with.
The disastrous mainly Democrat-crafted omnibus bill that the president was forced to sign last month to end the Democrat-created government shutdown cut the number of detention beds that DHS is allowed to use to house incoming illegal alien families. The bill also empowered human traffickers by making it possible for them to use illegal minors as human shields.
Read Nielsen’s full letter below:
But Democrats like Johnson aren’t the only one blaming the wrong things or people.
In a stunning rant Friday evening, Fox Business Network host Lou Dobbs blamed the ongoing crisis on Nielsen and McAleenan, calling them “fools” and suggesting they deserve to be fired.
“[T]he Department of Homeland Security has been reduced to saying the border is being overrun. The border patrol unable to do its job despite the president’s national emergency declaration and calling up the U.S. military to back up the border patrol,” he said.
“DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen is flailing and her department appears utterly paralyzed under ineffectual leadership. So desperate that she’s trying to raise, it seems, a posse of DHS employee volunteers to help secure the border, and the border patrol responding to the border crisis by releasing illegal immigrants onto American streets. Are they also dumping deadly drugs at the same time?”
DHS is having to release illegal aliens into American communities because, one, there’s no more space left to house them, two, rulings by left-wing judicial activists are preventing the agency from just returning illegals to their home country, and three, the Democrat-crafted omnibus bill mentioned earlier funded a program that moves asylum seekers deep inside the country and then releases them.
“[F]ire these incompetents in the leadership of the Department of Homeland Security and Customs and Border Protection,” he continued, adding that they “can’t act effectively” and “can’t innovate.”
Listen:
He also criticized Nielsen and McAleenan for reaching out to Congress. According to Dobbs, “Congress is the problem, not the solution.”
Perhaps it’s the problem and the solution?
For instance, after the Pentagon announced earlier this week that it’s found $1 billion in Army funding to convert to border wall funding as per the national security Trump enacted last month, congressional Democrats rushed to shut down the plan.
In a statement released Tuesday, the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee asserted that he wouldn’t allow the Department of Defense to do that.
“The committee denies this request,” committee chair Adam Smith said. “The committee does not approve the proposed use of Department of Defense funds to construct additional barriers and roads or install lighting in the vicinity of the United States border.”
Because Congress wields so much power, it’s unclear what else Nielsen and McAleenan can do besides beg congressional Democrats to stop prioritizing the needs of illegal aliens over those of the American people.
DONATE TO BIZPAC REVIEW
Please help us! If you are fed up with letting radical big tech execs, phony fact-checkers, tyrannical liberals and a lying mainstream media have unprecedented power over your news please consider making a donation to BPR to help us fight them. Now is the time. Truth has never been more critical!
[email protected]
V. Saxena is a staff writer for BizPac Review with a decade of experience as a professional writer, and a lifetime of experience as an avid news junkie. He holds a degree in computer technology from Purdue University.
- Columbia rabbi warns Jewish students to go home until it’s ‘safe again for them on campus’ - April 21, 2024
- Bishop says Biden ‘doesn’t understand’ the Catholic faith: ‘I’m not angry at him. He’s just stupid.’ - April 21, 2024
- Girl says she warned teacher about transgender bully before friend was pummeled, was told ‘don’t worry’ - April 21, 2024
Comment
We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, profanity, vulgarity, doxing, or discourteous behavior. If a comment is spam, instead of replying to it please click the ∨ icon below and to the right of that comment. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain fruitful conversation.
BPR INSIDER COMMENTS
Scroll down for non-member comments or join our insider conversations by becoming a member. We'd love to have you!
