White House, DHS Ambiguous About Whether Illegal Immigrant Kids Will Be Deported

Days after the White House refused to give a definitive answer about whether most of the illegal immigrant children flooding across the U.S.-Mexico would be deported, Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson also punted multiple times when asked on Sunday.

On Meet the Press, when host David Gregory asked Johnson if the illegal immigrants arriving from Central America will be sent back, Johnson responded with formulaic talking points.

"The law requires that, when DHS identifies somebody as a child, as an unaccompanied child, we turn them over to the Department of Health and Human Services," he said. "But there is a deportation proceeding that is commenced against the child. Now, that proceeding can take some time. And so we're looking at options, added flexibility, to deal with the children in particular, but in a humanitarian and fair way."

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