Border Patrol agents take into custody a father and son from Honduras near the U.S.-Mexico border by Mission, Texas, on June 12, 2018. The asylum seekers were then sent to a Customs and Border Protection processing center for possible separation. John Moore/Getty Images
YUMA, Arizona—The political and media firestorm that has erupted over the separation of parents and children at the border was called “irresponsible and unproductive” by Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen on June 17.
Nielsen took to Twitter to say the department does not have a blanket policy of separating families at the border, but rather is enforcing existing policy.