© Erin Schaff/ReutersSenate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Ron Johnson (R., Wis.) speaks on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., May 15, 2018.
Wisconsin's Republican senator believes the issue is a lot more complex than either side is willing to acknowledge.
With Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen's departure from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) this week, the future of the Trump administration's immigration policy has been thrown into uncertainty, even as the situation at the southern border becomes increasingly unstable.
According to a
New York Times report, Nielsen's relationship with the president worsened in recent months as he repeatedly blamed her for the ongoing surge in apprehensions at the border.
The breaking point apparently came when Trump asked her to close ports of entry and stop accepting asylum seekers, and she refused. Some other reports suggested that the president also was frustrated with Nielsen's resistance to reinstating the "zero tolerance" policy of separating migrant children from their families at the border, which was scrapped last summer after months of controversy. (Trump denied this on Tuesday afternoon, telling reporters, "We're not looking to do that, no.")
Nielsen's resignation came amid a months-long spike in the number of asylum seekers and migrant families stopped at the southern border. In early March, the
Times reported that
"for the fourth time in five months, the number of migrant families crossing the southwest border has broken records." Weeks later, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) head Kevin McAleenan called the situation an "unprecedented humanitarian and border-security crisis."
Comment: It was obviously not a joke and that he really did love Wikileaks. This is just more evidence that the US president is not in charge. He was told to distance himself from Assange, and he obediently obliged.