Nielsen: Separating families isn't a 'policy,' it's just something we do.

Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen.
(Photo: Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP)

Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen told reporters Monday that it was “offensive” to imply that the administration had a “policy” of separating parents from children at the border — even though it was the stated purpose of the controversial change in enforcement procedures put in place by the Trump administration.

“I find that offensive,” Nielsen said when asked at Monday’s White House briefing if the separation of parents from children was meant to send a message. “Why would I ever create a policy that purposely does that?”

But that was in fact one purpose of the “zero-tolerance” policy announced earlier this year by Attorney General Jeff Sessions, which has separated some 2,000 migrant children from their parents since it was instituted. Nielsen’s predecessor in running the Department of Homeland Security, current White House chief of staff John Kelly, has stated repeatedly that separating children from their parents would work as a deterrent.

Full story at Yahoo News.

By Caitlin Dickson and Christopher Wilson.