FROM EIR DAILY ALERT

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Former Homeland Secretary Johnson: Obama ‘Expanded Family Detention’ at Border

June 25, 2018 (EIRNS)—Not getting the national attention it should is evidence that the Obama Administration—so revered by those now making the most noise against Trump—faced the same border crisis as Trump, and reacted in a very similar fashion.

Case in point is former Obama Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, who appeared on Fox News Sunday morning, “freely admitting” to host Chris Wallace that his department both expanded family detention as well as detained some children alone, and said, in language similar to Trump’s, that he believed the decision was necessary at the time. Where was CNN then?

As Wallace showed pictures—but from 2014—he pressed Johnson, “Did you handle it so well?” Johnson stammered,

“Without a doubt, the images, and the reality, from 2014, just like 2018, are not pretty. And—so we expanded family detention. We had then 34,000 beds for family detention. Only 95 of 34,000 equipped to deal with families. And so we expanded it. I freely admit it was controversial. We believed it was necessary at the time. I still believe it is necessary to retain a certain capability for families.”

To his credit, Johnson several times during his presentation referred to the larger humanitarian picture: These families are fleeing utter destruction.

“We did not want to go so far as to separate families,” Johnson said later, “but unless we deal with the underlying causes that are motivating people in the first place, we are going to continue to bang our heads against the wall on this issue.”