DHS Secretary: Asylum seekers to be sent to Mexico, speaks on humanitarian crisis

Acting U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kevin McAleenan confirmed asylum seekers detained in Yuma will be sent back to Mexico during his visit in San Luis, Ariz., Thursday.

During the press conference, held at the U.S.-Mexico border in San Luis, Ariz., Secretary McAleenan said, ” The situation is improving by every available metric, but and I want to be very clear about this we remain at and beyond crisis levels in illegal crossings even as it is our initiative is to address irregular flows and mitigate humanitarian conditions are making an impact. ”

McAleenan confirmed that the agency will begin sending asylum seekers to San Luis Rio Colorado to wait for their case process. It was not confirmed as to when the agency will begin to send asylum seekers back to Mexico.

DHS Secretary McAleenan has visited Central American governments twice this year to help stop the flow of migrants from coming north.

Secretary McAleenan gave his take on the recent mass shooting that happened in El Paso.

” This horrific act was an attack on our family and our community as well. A number of DHS families were affected as close family members were victims of the attack, ” McAleenan said.

Yuma Mayor Doug Nicholls met with the DHS secretary, along with other Yuma-area leaders to discuss border, immigration, and port efficiency.

{“url”:”https://twitter.com/MayorNicholls/status/1159548070788419584″,”author_name”:”Douglas Nicholls”,”author_url”:”https://twitter.com/MayorNicholls”,”html”:”&#lt;blockquote class=”twitter-tweet”&#gt;&#lt;p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”&#gt;Thank you &#lt;a href=”https://twitter.com/DHSMcAleenan?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”&#gt;@DHSMcAleenan&#lt;/a&#gt; for meeting with Yuma-area leaders to discuss the border, immigration, and port efficiency needs in our region. Continuing to work together to voice for Congressional fixes to immigration reform and the migrant humanitarian crisis. &#lt;a href=”https://t.co/7kjHx3MjxK”&#gt;pic.twitter.com/7kjHx3MjxK&#lt;/a&#gt;&#lt;/p&#gt;– Douglas Nicholls (@MayorNicholls) &#lt;a href=”https://twitter.com/MayorNicholls/status/1159548070788419584?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”&#gt;August 8, 2019&#lt;/a&#gt;&#lt;/blockquote&#gt;n&#lt;script async src=”https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js” charset=”utf-8″&#gt;&#lt;/script&#gt;n”,”width”:550,”height”:null,”type”:”rich”,”cache_age”:”3153600000″,”provider_name”:”Twitter”,”provider_url”:”https://twitter.com”,”version”:”1.0″}

Yuma Sector Border Patrol spokesman Vincent Dulesky told News 11 the investigation for the mistreatment and sexual misconduct of migrant children remains under investigation. No suspect has been identified at this time.

McAleenan also toured the recently built soft-sided facility in Yuma.

Senator Martha McSally is expected to meet with Secretary McAleenan later this Thursday to discuss the soft-sided facility and the
Secure and Protect Act of 2019.

The act, introduced by McSally and Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-SC), passed at the Judiciary Committee last week to which they call a humane approach to gain operational control of the borders.

Join us tonight as we continue with our coverage of McAleenan and McSally’s visit.