On Eve of Committee Vote, Kirstjen Nielsen’s Commitment to the Trump Immigration Agenda Remains Questionable, Cautions FAIR

(November 13, 2017, Washington, D.C.) — Recent comments by Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary nominee Kirstjen Nielsen have raised serious questions about her commitment to key positions on immigration policy articulated by President Trump. Most troubling, at her Senate confirmation hearing last week, Nielsen seemingly endorsed unconditional amnesty for illegal aliens who are currently protected under Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA)– an unconstitutional Obama era program opposed by candidate Trump. Nielsen supports a legislative amnesty for DACA recipients, stating, “We must and we owe it to them.”

“Nielsen’s support for amnesty for illegal aliens and her lack of experience in immigration policy and enforcement raise concerns about her ability to manage these important functions of DHS. Immigration is not only an important part of DHS’s purview, but it is a key component of all aspects of DHS’s mandate to protect the domestic security of the United States,” said Dan Stein, president of the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR). “The person heading the department must be fully versed in these issues and in sync with the administration’s goals of enforcing and reforming immigration policy in the public interest.”

Nielsen’s ill-timed comment that the American people “owe” illegal aliens an amnesty came as the administration is working to ensure that Congress makes good on decades of broken enforcement and immigration reform promises to the American people. “Nielsen’s failure to recognize that permanent status for DACA recipients is a courtesy, not a debt, and that fulfillment of promises to the American people is a debt, not an afterthought, is indicative of an inside-the-beltway mindset that the American public thoroughly rejected in the last election,” says Stein.

“Securing our borders, enforcing laws against illegal aliens taking American jobs, and deporting illegal aliens in the interior of the United States are part of DHS’s mandate. It is something DHS owes the American people, unconditionally,” Stein continued.

“As we approach a final confirmation vote in the Senate, it is essential that Ms. Nielsen and the White House affirm that the future of DACA beneficiaries must be conditioned on tangible enforcement of U.S. immigration laws and other reforms that benefit the American people,” concluded Stein.

Contact:  Dave Ray, [email protected]; 202-368-7872