McAleenan: Trump's Tactics Worked, Brought Mexico to the Table

Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Kevin McAleenan during a hearing before the Senate (Win McNamee/Getty Images)

By Cathy Burke | Sunday, 09 June 2019 11:44 AM

Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Kevin McAleenan on Sunday credited President Donald Trump’s threat to slap tariffs on Mexico with bringing it “to the table with real proposals” to crack down on illegal immigration.

In an interview on “Fox News Sunday,” McAleenan said the proof of success was nearly immediate.

"People can disagree with the tactics,” he said. “Mexico came to the table with real proposals. We have an agreement that … will be effective."

"It brought them to the table,” he declared. “The foreign minister of Mexico arrived within hours … with real proposals on the table,” McAleenan said. “This is the first time we've heard anything like this kind of number of law enforcement being deployed in Mexico to address migrations. Not just at the southern border but also on transportation routes to the northern border and in coordinated patrols in key areas around our southwest border. "

He also said in the In the last two months , “we have more than doubled those two full years of crisis” of an illegal immigration surge, repeating that 144,000 people were detained for illegally crossing the border last month.

McAleenan said legal changes will need to be made, including detaining asylum seekers for a longer period of time, to “be able to repatriate unaccompanied children” and to change the asylum standard so that granting a claim of “‘credible fear’ is not so automatic.”

Poster Comment:

It looks like the Federales will be on the job around the clock.