An Obama-era Department of Homeland Security chief is warning Democratic presidential candidates to cool their push to decriminalize illegal border crossings, saying such a move would be tantamount to “open borders” policy and lead to hundreds of thousands more people flooding into the U.S. every month.
“That is tantamount to declaring publicly that we have open borders,” Jeh Johnson told The Washington Post.
“That is unworkable, unwise and does not have the support of a majority of American people or the Congress, and if we had such a policy, instead of 100,000 apprehensions a month, it will be multiples of that,” he said.
In May, authorities apprehended or encountered more than 144,000 border crossers, representing a stunning increase over the past several months. Current acting DHS Secretary Kevin McAleenan said Friday that he anticipates the numbers decreased in June, amid new efforts to crack down both at the U.S.-Mexico border and Mexico's border with Central America.
Johnson’s warning that any gains could be reversed comes as 2020 Democratic presidential hopefuls have lurched to the left on immigration, calling for health care for illegal immigrants and scrapping certain immigration enforcement measures.
Obama DHS chief blasts Dems’ ‘open borders’ push, warns migration would explode
Jeh Johnson by Gage Skidmore is licensed under Flickr Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.
Source:
Adam Shaw
Jeh Johnson by Gage Skidmore is licensed under Flickr Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.