Have gavel, will travel.
Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen has deployed Justice Department prosecutors and judges, as well as asylum officers and immigration attorneys from DHS, to the southwest border ahead of the arrival of the Central American migrant caravan.
“DHS, in partnership with DOJ, is taking a number of steps to ensure that all cases and claims are adjudicated promptly – including sending additional USCIS asylum officers, ICE attorneys, DOJ Immigration Judges, and DOJ prosecutors to the southern border,” Nielsen said in a statement issued Monday afternoon. It did not state when or where sub-groups of the caravan were expected to arrive.
The DHS chief warned Central American migrants traveling as part of a caravan through Mexico to the U.S. that any person caught illegally crossing into the country will be prosecuted and deported.
“DHS continues to monitor the remnants of the ‘caravan’ of individuals headed to our Southern border with the apparent intention of entering the United States illegally,” Nielsen added. “If you enter the United States illegally, let me be clear: you have broken the law. And we will enforce the law through prosecution of illegal border crossers.”