BORDER/DHS/MEXICO/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT/TRUMP PEOPLE: “Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said on Thursday [4-4-19] that the agency is in ‘disaster response’ as a result of a steep uptick of migrants at the southern border…Administration officials have been sounding the alarm over the increase in migrants at the southern border, underscoring the change in demographics as one of the reasons for the host of challenges they’re facing…Nielsen again said that the department is treating the situation at the southern border as if the US has have been hit by a ‘Cat 5 hurricane.’ Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin McAleenan said late last month that the US was on pace to encounter more than 100,000 migrants in March alone, making it ‘the highest month since 2008’…In previous years, single adults had largely been a majority of those crossing the border. Since October, there’s been a 300% increase in the number of families apprehended compared with the same period in fiscal year 2018, according to CBP. The administration has implemented a slew of policies, like requiring some asylum seekers to wait in Mexico for the duration of their immigration hearings, to try to stem the flow of migration, but some Democratic lawmakers and advocates argue that it’s those policies that helped fuel the situation along the border.”
–Priscilla Alvarez and Geneva Sands, “Homeland security secretary on border situation: ‘We have an emergency on our hands’,” CNN Politics, CNN.com, April 4, 2019 10:33 pm