UPDATE from @PressSec, per pool: "The briefing will be delayed until 5pm so that Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen can join me and answer questions regarding immigration."
@PressSec MORE:
@PressSec Nielsen is up, with an upbeat demeanor ... not exactly fitting the day.
Nielsen, after saying — at length — that loopholes are to blame, flat out says that they have changed the way they are enforcing laws, which is what has led to the significant rise in parent-child separations.
Nielsen: "Illegal immigrants ... have put their children at risk."
This is absurd. Nielsen is literally doubling down on the policy that she claimed didn't exist.
A zero-tolerance policy is a policy.
Nielsen also made clear that DHS could consider a lack of documentation of familial status to be a reason for separating parents and children.
The law does not require the zero-tolerance policy that the administration has decided to use as its justification for separating parents and children.
"They separated families," Nielsen says, referencing the Obama and Bush administrations.
Nielsen: "The kids are being used as pawns by the smugglers and traffickers." / In response to a question about the family separation being used as leverage for the bill (with wall funding)
Nielsen says it's "incorrect" to say that people seeking asylum are being turned away from ports of entry. "We're not turning them away," she says, saying they are telling people to come back when they don't have space. (Which is turning them away.)
IN SUM: Nielsen told the press that a discretionary policy decision — zero-tolerance enforcement — was a "law" that created this problem. Then said that people need to seek asylum at ports of entry — even though people seeking asylum are being turned away from ports of entry.
Nielsen also repeatedly conflated unaccompanied minors with family separation.
Beyond everything else, this is an extraordinarily dense argument because there was so much outrage over the Kate Steinle's killing that it fueled a significant portion of Trump's campaign.
Incredible that in the middle of this, Nielsen literally says, "What has changed is that we no longer exempt entire classes of people who break the law. Everyone is subject to prosecution." This change is *precisely* what led to this separation crisis. 
Hence, they know exactly what's going on, know they've created this crisis, and know they could stop it. It makes Nielsen et al's "offense" and blank stares and claims that the law requires this all the more intolerable as an explanation.
So, they are using children for leverage. The end.
Oof. Looks like Susan Collins has turned a corner:
Republicans Say They Don’t Like Trump’s Family Separation Policy But It's Not Clear What They'll Do About It buzzfeed.com/paulmcleod/rep… from @pdmcleod & @LissandraVilla
Trump Keeps Telling Us There's A Crisis At The Border. The Numbers Say That's Not True. buzzfeed.com/adolfoflores/t… by @aflores
