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Homeland Secretary Says Caravan Organizers Using Women and Children as Human Shields

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Homeland Security Secretary Kirjsten Nielsen offered a disturbing assessment when she toured the border wall in southern California Tuesday.

She observed the work of Border Patrol and US active duty troops who have been installing new concertina wire along the wall in preparation for those in the caravan who will try to enter the US illegally.  

Nielsen says 6,200 of the 10,000-strong caravan are already in Tijuana, and they have a strategy for sneaking across the border.

"Organizers of the caravan have been pushing women and children and others to the front of the caravan in the hope that law enforcement will not engage them," Nielsen reports. "This is particularly dangerous given the unusual propensity for violence we have seen in this caravan."

Monday, a federal judge blocked the Trump administration's order barring asylum to people who enter the US illegally. The departments of Homeland Security & Justice joined together to call the judge's action "absurd," describing the asylum system as "broken".

The joint statement reads: "It's absurd that a set of advocacy groups can be found to have standing to sue to stop the entire federal government from acting so that illegal aliens can receive a government benefit to which they are not entitled. We look forward to continuing to defend the executive branch's legitimate and well-reasoned exercise of its authority to address the crisis at our southern border."

US inspectors are processing about 100 asylum claims a day at the main crossing from Tijuana into San Diego, creating long waits and likely causing others to bypass the line and enter the country illegally.

"The job of the United States Border Patrol is to make that nobody comes into our home comes into this nation without coming through the front door," Border Patrol San Diego Sector Chief Rodney Scott said. 

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About The Author

Ben
Kennedy

Ben Kennedy is an Emmy Award-winning White House correspondent for CBN News in Washington, D.C. He has more than a decade of reporting experience covering breaking news nationwide. He's traveled cross country covering the President and scored exclusive interviews with lawmakers and White House officials. Kennedy spent seven years reporting for WPLG, the ABC affiliate in Miami, Florida. While there he reported live from Kingston, Jamaica, as Hurricane Matthew hit the island. He was the first journalist to interview Diana Nyad moments after her historic swim from Cuba to Key West. He reported