Secretary Nielsen’s Efforts to Increase Immigrants Return to Mexico
On April 1st, 2019 the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kirsten Nielsen rang the alarm bells about impending humanitarian disaster at the US Mexico border with the recent mass arrival of Central American immigrants. Secretary Nielsen stressed the need to undertake emergency surge operations to respond to the crisis. Therefore, the US Customs Border Protection (CBP) was given a blank check to increase their personnel and resources and ordered to start with redeploying 750 officers along the southern border to beef up Border Patrols. CBP is also to expand the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) policy nationwide. By doing so, CBP officers will be free to return non-Mexican immigrants to Mexico until an immigration court reviews their claims.