President Trump’s new rule to extend maximum detention terms for migrant families seeking entry into the U.S. was defended on Monday by Acting Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Mark Morgan.
“What this new regulation does is, we’re going to hold you, not indefinitely, just long enough to go through the immigration process which in past history is between 40-60 days,” Morgan told “America’s Newsroom.”
The Trump administration announced last week that it intends to scrap a major court agreement in order to allow for migrant families to be detained longer as their cases are being considered, instead of having to release them after 20 days. The move will prevent families from being separated as they await rulings, according to the White House.
Acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan, in a press conference detailing the decision, claimed that the long-standing court order known as the Flores agreement has incentivized illegal immigration and represents a "loophole" in the immigration system.
“What’s really cruel is the fact that Congress has failed to do their job to fix the loopholes in our immigration system and stop these individuals from risking their lives and using children as pawns to do it because we know right now, you grab a kid, that’s your passport in the united states to be released and never be heard from again,” he said.
Morgan said that during the Obama administration, family residential centers were more effective when they held families together and they “weren’t released into the United States, never to be heard from again.”
“We saw the numbers drastically go down.”
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“By keeping them together, going through the immigration [court] and when those claims are found to be meritless, we're removing them back to their country. That’s going to get to them and it’s going to remove that incentive, you’re going to see them stop coming,” he said.
Fox News’ Dom Calicchio contributed to this report.
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