Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, in an interview Sunday with Chris Wallace, could not say that the refugee caravan heading towards the United States from Central America is a national security threat.
Nielsen was initially trying to speak of the supposed dangers of the caravan, who are attempting to reach the U.S. border to legally request asylum in the United States. Many on the right have characterized this as an illegal act; however, making a request at a point of entry is the accepted method of initiating asylum.
“What the president has been saying and will continue to say and what I’ve been saying is this caravan is not getting in,” Nielsen told Wallace. “My general message to this caravan is do not come. You will not be allowed in. There is a right way to emigrate to the United States and this is not it.”
Wallace noted reports that Trump might attempt to make a move similar to his first travel ban that barred Muslims from several nations from entering the United States.
Wallace then asked, “on what basis can you say that this caravan poses a national security threat?”
Nielsen steered away from the question, saying, “We have a crisis at the border right now. We are stopping between 1,500 and 1,700 people a day trying to cross illegally into this country. This caravan is one iteration of that.”
Returning to his question, Wallace asked, pointedly, “We’re talking, in many cases here, about women, about children, about babies. How do they threaten national security?”
Nielsen seemed to pivot to similar statements as the president, attempting to link Middle Eastern terror threats to the caravan.
“You don’t have a membership in the caravan,” said Nielsen. “Moment to moment, there are people raising their hand saying they are part of the so-called caravan and there are others…. who say they are no longer part of the caravan.”
“This is about the rule of law, this is about understanding who is in the flow — and, Chris, I cannot tell you as secretary of Homeland Security that I know every person in this flow. What I do know is that we stop 3,000 people a year who have travel patterns similar to terrorists,” she added.
Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen has been under fire due to her part in the family separation policy that has left hundreds of children removed from their parents and kept in camps in the United States.
Watch the whole interview below
Image via screen capture from video source.