Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen in an interview with Fox News Tuesday night said that the immigration crisis is being treated as a “massive Cat 5 hurricane disaster” and that in terms of the Trump administration’s response, “everything is on the table.”
“In my opinion, right now, this is one of, if not the biggest crisis this country has faced in a decade, truly,” said Nielsen on “Tucker Carlson Tonight.” “I mean, right now, the security aspects of this, the humanitarian aspects of this have got to be addressed.”
“This is at the very top of our list at DHS,” she continued. “We’re now treating this like a massive Cat 5 hurricane disaster. We are bringing all of the inter-agencies together; we're asking everybody to chip in. We need to surge down as many resources as we can to the border.”
Nielsen added that Congress needs to do the same:
“But Congress needs to look at this as a hurricane, too. Where is the supplemental? Where are the additional authority? What is the way to address this?” she asked.
Nielsen also said that Homeland Security has “made the request” to put the U.S. military along the U.S.-Mexico border and that President Trump is not closed off from other suggestions such as signing an executive order that would expand E-Verify to punish employers who employ illegal immigrants or possibly an executive order that would end “birthright” citizenship.
“He will take every action within his authority to stop this flow,” said Nielsen.
“We have to stop the drugs. We have to stop the smuggling and trafficking gangs. He's very serious about it, so yes, I think everything is on the table,” she said.
“It’s not a partisan issue,” Nielsen noted, calling on Congress to act now.
Her remarks come after Nielsen issued a memorandum on Monday outlining steps that DHS will be taking to address the immigration crisis, including redeploying hundreds of U.S. Customs and Border Protection personnel to the border and pursuing an expansion of “Migrant Protection Protocols, a DHS initiative to return migrants to Mexico to wait during the pendency of their U.S. immigration proceedings,” MRCTV reported.