Kirstjen Nielsen Will Have to Get Back to You About How Many People Have Died on Her Watch
NewsPolitics
On Thursday, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen appeared before the House Judiciary Committee to offer testimony about why, and how, a 7-year-old child under her agency’s custody died. But Nielsen, who maintains that the Trump administration never had a policy of separating families at the border, did not seem to know much about how her department operates.
When Rep. David Cicilline, a Democrat from Rhode Island, asked Nielsen how many people have died under DHS’s custody, she said didn’t know. “Did I understand you correctly to say that, as you sit here today, you do not know how many human beings have died while in custody of the department that you lead, and in preparation for today’s hearing, you didn’t ascertain that number?”
“I don’t have an exact figure for you,” she said.