{"id":299561,"date":"2017-03-18T02:14:05","date_gmt":"2017-03-18T01:14:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/dhs-chief-dismissive-of-immigration-questions-frustrates-democrats\/"},"modified":"2017-03-18T02:14:05","modified_gmt":"2017-03-18T01:14:05","slug":"dhs-chief-dismissive-of-immigration-questions-frustrates-democrats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/dhs-chief-dismissive-of-immigration-questions-frustrates-democrats\/","title":{"rendered":"DHS chief \u2018dismissive\u2019 of immigration questions frustrates Democrats"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>        After repeated requests, Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly finally met with House Democrats over concerns about the Trump administration\u2019s immigration enforcement. From the lawmakers\u2019 perspective, however, it did not go well.<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>House Democrats, especially members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, had been requesting the meeting to discuss the Department of Homeland Security\u2019s immigration agencies for weeks. They also sought documentation from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) about the Trump administration\u2019s strict enforcement of immigration laws.<\/p>\n<p>Prior to the meeting, neither DHS nor its ICE agency responded to lawmakers\u2019 written questions, Congressional Hispanic Caucus Chairwoman Michelle Lujan Grisham (D-New Mexico) told reporters afterward.<\/p>\n<p>They have <em>\u201cnot even [sent] a form letter saying: \u2018We&#8217;ve received your inquiry,&#8217;\u201d<\/em> she said.<\/p>\n<p><center><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"854\" height=\"480\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/IHY55ZuSHho\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><\/center><\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;We have never seen that level of complete ignoring of members of Congress&#8217; inquiry,&#8221;<\/em> Representative Linda Sanchez (D-California) said, referring to her prior experiences with both Democratic and Republican administrations. <em>&#8220;To not even get a response\u2026we feel we are sending letters into a black hole.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Kelly previously cancelled the meeting with House Democrats several times before finally heading to Capitol Hill on Friday. The meeting began with a <em>\u201cvery, very, very brief opening statement and then opened to questions, which we appreciated,\u201d<\/em> but the secretary was <em>\u201cdismissive\u201d<\/em> of lawmakers <em>&#8220;as though they were plebes or cadets,&#8221;<\/em> Democratic Caucus Chairman Joseph Crowley (D-New York) said.<\/p>\n<p>Kelly\u2019s responses to questions <em>\u201cwere less than satisfactory,\u201d<\/em> Sanchez added. <em>\u201cThey were not very deep \u2012 they were sort of topline, general platitudes.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;He was not familiar with some areas of the law that we had questions about,&#8221;<\/em> said Sanchez. <em>&#8220;He reacted poorly to some of the questions that were asked of him. He did attempt to answer certain questions in a very thoughtful way, but still, many, many questions remain.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<div class=\"arcticle__read-more read-more\">\n<p>Read more<\/p>\n<p>    <a class=\"read-more__link\" href=\"http:\/\/www.rt.com\/usa\/380227-daca-released-ice-mississippi\/\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n                    <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"read-more__cover\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.rt.com\/files\/2017.03\/thumbnail\/58c3512fc3618875378b45fe.jpg\" alt=\"FILE PHOTO \u00a9 Jason Redmond\"\/><br \/>\n    <\/a>\n<\/div>\n<p>One of those questions was about children who were brought to the US illegally and grew up here.<\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;I can guarantee you we&#8217;re not going after kids that are fully DACA-qualified,&#8221;<\/em> said Kelly, referring to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program implemented by President Barack Obama, according to Agencia EFE.<em> &#8220;I&#8217;m the best thing that happened to DACA\u2026 it is still on the books.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Yet he was not completely candid about DHS plans for the program, because he went<em> \u201cout of his way\u201d<\/em> and<em> \u201cleft the door open\u201d<\/em> to using DACA application information for immigration enforcement purposes, despite Democrats pushing for a promise not to do so, according to Rep. Nanette Barragan (D-California).<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cI think that anything\u2019s possible with this administration,\u201d<\/em> Crowley said.<\/p>\n<p>Kelly was open to equipping ICE agents with body cameras, in accordance with a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rt.com\/usa\/380215-ny-congresswoman-seeks-bodycams-ice\/\">bill introduced last week<\/a>, but then told lawmakers DHS doesn\u2019t have the money to implement such a program.<\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;He mentioned that they just don&#8217;t have the budget. We pushed back on that a bit,&#8221;<\/em> Lujan Grisham said. President Donald Trump\u2019s proposed budget blueprint, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rt.com\/usa\/381056-trump-congress-budget-2018\/\">introduced on Thursday<\/a>, called for increasing parts of the department\u2019s funding.<\/p>\n<p>Not all Democrats were disappointed with Kelly\u2019s appearance, though. Rep. Juan Vargas (D-California) said that the secretary&#8217;s demeanor left him hopeful that Kelly would strike the same tone with his boss.<\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;That same pushback that everyone got and didn&#8217;t like, I think he does that same pushback to the administration when it comes to DACA kids and others. Even though he was general-like in his demeanor and his attitude, that can be a very positive thing,&#8221;<\/em> said Vargas.<\/p>\n<p>One thing Kelly pushed back on was that he told lawmakers that DHS agencies were not arresting immigrants in <em>\u201csensitive locations\u201d<\/em> like <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/VsXv8cLDiOg\">churches<\/a> and schools, telling them that they were receiving misinformation, even though Sanchez said they had photographic documentation and witness testimony about such incidents.<\/p>\n<p><center><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"854\" height=\"480\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/n6OWsYckprE\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><\/center><\/p>\n<p>Kelly was very clear that courthouses were not included as<em> &#8216;sensitive locations,&#8217;<\/em> she said. Judges across the country, including the chief justice of the California Supreme Court, have asked federal immigration officials to stop making arrests at courthouses.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cCourthouses should not be used as bait in the necessary enforcement of our country\u2019s immigration laws,\u201d<\/em> Chief Justice Tani G. Cantil-Sakauye wrote in a letter to Kelly and Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Thursday, the Associated Press reported. She accused immigration officials of <em>\u201cstalking undocumented immigrants.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Democrats have asked Kelly to return to answer their questions with more specifics.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Via <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rt.com\/usa\/381204-democrats-kelly-immigration-policies\/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=RSS\">RT<\/a>. This piece was reprinted by <a href=\"http:\/\/rinf.com\">RINF Alternative News<\/a> with permission or license.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After repeated requests, Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly finally met with House Democrats over concerns about the Trump administration\u2019s immigration enforcement. From the lawmakers\u2019 perspective, however, it did not go well. House Democrats, especially members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, had been requesting the meeting to discuss the Department of Homeland Security\u2019s immigration agencies for [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":298664,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-299561","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-newswire"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299561","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=299561"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299561\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/298664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=299561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=299561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=299561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}