Testifying before Congress this week, Department of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson admitted that his department does not have “situational control” over the Southern Border.
Appearing before several committees to justify his 2016 budget request, Mr. Johnson said his department does not yet have situational control over the southwestern border, nor does it even have full “situational awareness” yet.
“I don’t know that we’ll be able to achieve that before the end of this administration,” the secretary told Sen. Ben Sasse, Nebraska Republican, who was quizzing him on it at a Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing.
Situational awareness means simply knowing how many illegals are crossing the border at any one time while situational control implies the ability to interdict and stop illegal crossing. However, Obama’s border control agencies can’t even agree on what would amount to either.
The Border Patrol used to use a measure called “operational control,” which measured how many miles of the border agents believed they could reasonably detect and deter or apprehend smugglers or illegal crossers. But with less than half of the border under operational control in 2010, Ms. Napolitano scrapped that yardstick, promising a replacement.
Five years later, no replacement has been released.
Johnson’s candor is in sharp contrast to former Secretary Janet Napolitano who consistently called the border secure even in the face of massive invasions by illegal immigrants.
Clearly, anyone who supports amnesty only after the border is secure should take Johnson’s statements as fact and demand an end to amnesty until the border is actually secure.
