While Mr. Johnson's statement did not mention the recent influx of Haitians along the southwestern border, Homeland Security officials, during a conference call with reporters, cited the migrant wave as the other major factor in the administration's decision.
The soaring level of violence in Mexico resulting from the drug wars there has led the United States to develop plans for a "surge" of civilian and perhaps even military law enforcement should the bloodshed spread across the border, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said Wednesday.
Last year, as reports documented dozens of shootings by agents on the Southwest border, Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson gave internal affairs investigators the authority to conduct criminal investigations into alleged misconduct and abuse.
Yet he also teases his audience, with headlines from stories that run in the second half hour, which is dominated by what Dobbs's executive producer, Jim McGinnis, refers to as "brands" — segments with names like "Broken Borders," "Homeland Insecurity," "War on the Middle Class," "Exporting America," and "The Best Government Money Can Buy".
Hundreds of federal agents — from Border Patrol, Homeland Security Investigations, the Drug Enforcement Administration, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement — work in a pair of large unmarked buildings on the edge of the Otay Mesa district.
Sharpening a confrontation with Republicans over Southwest border enforcement, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said on Monday that crime and illegal crossings had dropped sharply along the border, and she accused lawmakers who say violence is out of control there of trying to "score political points".
"It's pretty easy to co-opt them," said James Phelps, a border and homeland security professor at Angelo State University in San Angelo, Texas.
WASHINGTON -- Faced with conservative attacks that the Obama administration is to blame for a dramatic influx of unaccompanied minors crossing the border illegally, Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson issued a plea on Thursday to parents of undocumented children: Don't send or bring them to the U.S. without authorization.
Sen. Kelly Ayotte, a prominent advocate for keeping the detention center open, criticized the decision to transfer the men to Oman, which borders their homeland along the Arabian Sea.
The immigration debate has been recast to focus on border security and homeland defense.
A10 Tighter Border Controls Sought Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, acknowledging public frustration over illegal immigration, said the federal government's border control efforts must be significantly altered.
