The Sarah Sanders briefing was added to the schedule today for 1:15 pm, then moved to 3:30 pm and then 4 pm, and it hasn't started at 4:25 pm.
Message from Sanders: "The briefing will be delayed until 5pm so that Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen can join me and answer questions regarding immigration. Thank you for your patience."
The briefing has started.
Nielsen invokes MS-13 and asylum fraud. Claims the immigration crisis is about "loopholes in our federal immigration laws," though they can just stop separating families right now.
"We are a country of compassion. We are a country of heart," she says.
"We are a country of compassion. We are a country of heart," she says.
Nielsen, again being extremely dishonest, says the critics of their policies are offering only "open borders" as an alternative. (They define "open borders" as "any immigration policy less harsh than ours.")
"Parents can still communicate with their children through phone calls and videoconferencing," Nielsen says.
Nielsen: Parents who enter the U.S. illegally "are, by definition, criminals...illegal immigrants have put their children at risk" by entering illegally, she says.
Nielsen: "We have a duty to protect the American people...DHS is no longer ignoring the law." Again, there's not a law requiring the separations.
Asked if she's seen the photos of children in cages or heard the audio that came out today, Nielsen says, "I would reference you to our standards."
Q: "How is this not child abuse?
Nielsen: "Enforcing the law?"
There is no law requiring this.
Nielsen: "Enforcing the law?"
There is no law requiring this.
Asked how the separations aren't abuse, Nielsen responds with a non-sequitur, noting that many children are sent to the U.S. without their parents.
Asked why Trump doesn't just pick up the phone and change a policy he claims to hate, Nielsen says, "I think what the president is trying to do is find a long-term fix...Congress could fix this tomorrow."
"The children are not being used as a pawn. We are trying to protect the children," Nielsen says.
Nielsen has left. That was very dishonest.
Sanders is read the statistics about Germany having its lowest crime rate since 1992. Asked about Trump's tweet saying Germany crime is way up, she says, "I'm not aware of the report that you're referencing." It is the official German national crime report.
Sanders on the separations: "I feel like we keep ignoring the fact that the president isn’t the one that creates the law.” These people are very big liars.
Asked why Trump won't just sign standalone legislation ending family separation if he hates it so much, Sanders says, "We want to fix the entire system. We don't want to just tinker with it."
Sanders goes Stephen Miller, talking about illegal immigrants murdering Americans and thus separating those Americans' families from them because they're dead.
"Where's the outrage over *that* separation?" she says.
"Where's the outrage over *that* separation?" she says.
There's nothing reporters can ask to make determined liars not lie, but yeah, it's bad that such pitiful "responses" from Nielsen, Sanders and others are so rarely challenged with follow-ups.
