Homeland Security secretary insists border crisis is 'real'

WASHINGTON (AP) — Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen insisted today the crisis at the southern border is not manufactured, as she faced questions from Democrats for the first time since they took control of the House.

"We face a crisis – a real, serious and sustained crisis at our borders," she said at a House Homeland Security Committee hearing. "Make no mistake: This chain of human misery is getting worse."

Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson said he wanted to use the hearing in part to give Nielsen the opportunity to start a "serious discussion," rather than echoing President Donald Trump's claims of a security crisis at the border, and to say what she knew about the family separations last year. He said real oversight over the border was long overdue.

"No amount of verbal gymnastics will change that she knew the Trump administration was implementing a policy to separate families at the border," Thompson said. "To make matters worse, the administration bungled implementation of its cruel plan, losing track of children and even deporting parents to Central America without their children."

Nielsen was grilled on whether she was aware of the psychological effects of separating children from their parents, and when she knew ahead of time about the "zero tolerance" policy that led to the separation of more than 2,700 children from their parents last year. And she was asked about conversations with Trump as he declared a national emergency at the border to try to gain funding for his proposed wall between the U.S. and Mexico.

"There is an emergency," Nielsen said. "I have seen the vulnerable populations. This is a true humanitarian crisis that the system is enabling. We have to change the laws."

White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders weighed in on the hearing via Twitter:

"The crisis at our border is no secret," she wrote. Democrats were "just choosing to ignore it."

The hearing is one of three at the Capitol on immigration today.