Sessions - who spoke first in Scottsdale, Ariz., and then in San Diego - said: "We don't want to separate families, but we don't want families to come to the border illegally." ICE top official Thomas Homan, who joined Sessions at the California event, stressed that people with "a clear claim to asylum" should seek refuge at a port of entry, and not try to cross the border without authorization. Nielsen did not comment publicly on the controversial new approach to border arrests.
It's doubtful the administration can feasibly prosecute "100 percent" of suspected border crossers. Sessions himself conceded in his Arizona remarks that federal prosecutors would take on as many cases "as humanly possible." An increase in arrests of parents will require more children to be categorized as "unaccompanied minors" and transferred into the custody of the Health and Human Services Department pending placement with a parent or guardian. But the Office of Refugee Resettlement, which deals with unaccompanied minors, has already reached 86 percent of its capacity, according to internal data (current to May 6) that a DHS official shared with Morning Shift. The official said that 9,030 beds were filled and only 1,430 were still open. At the current growth rate, ORR will reach capacity in less than two weeks, according to the official: "I'm at a bit of a loss at where this goes."
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