Former Homeland Security Sec. Jeh Johnson remarked on MSNBC’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports” on Wednesday that we can’t “keep track of” everyone getting through the southern border, even with the extra resources, since the volume of individuals traveling across the border is so vast.
“Watching those individuals just scrambling seeking whatever supplies, limited supplies that they were able to get,” host Andrea Mitchell said. “It should not happen. The world’s richest nation should be able to feed, clothe, shelter, and process…migrants to our country. This is a long-standing issue. There are 2 million unresolved cases. And why couldn’t we – we can blame it on governmental inaction. But there is funds in the budget, discretionary funds, that could be put towards this, to process and hire people, and so on.”
Johnson interjected, saying, “When you have individuals coming across our southern border in such large numbers, even with the enhanced resources we currently have, it’s just not practical to keep track of them all. And the backlog of cases continues to grow, forcing communities that are along the southern border to have to absorb these large numbers. And then, as you know, it becomes a political gimmick by the governors of Texas and Florida…sending individuals to New York, the bus station, Massachusetts Avenue, Martha’s Vineyard, Chicago, and everywhere else. And it should have been done on a national scale, in a more coordinated manner, where many states share the load and take on this large population, similar to how we did with refugee resettlement back seven or eight years ago.”