John Kelly wrote letter to thank mayor, city for hospitality

3 hrs ago
MITCHELL FERMAN



(copy of letter may be viewed at the source link below)

McALLEN — Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly said in a brief letter to McAllen Mayor Jim Darling that his Feb. 1 visit to McAllen helped him understand the challenges his department’s employees and local law enforcement face along the border.

The letter from Kelly, dated March 17 and received by the city last week, also thanked Darling and the city for its hospitality. A month earlier, Darling wrote Kelly a letter recommending that a border wall along the levee system in this area would be beneficial.

Darling said 28 miles of wall was part of the original plan in 2006, when President George W. Bush signed the Secure Fence Act, which mandated the construction of 670 miles of fence along the U.S.-Mexico border. In Hidalgo County, the drainage district built 20.26 miles of fence combined with a concrete levee barrier, paid for by the county and the Department of Homeland Security.

There is still a section of it yet to be completed, according to Darling. Terminology fluctuates — some refer to the current barrier as a fence while others, such as Darling in his letter to Kelly, call it a wall.

Kelly has been mostly mum recently, though he met with some mayors, officials, police chiefs and Senate Democrats last week regarding immigration. Kelly told Senate Democrats that recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, undocumented youth who are also known as “Dreamers,” are not being deported, according to news reports.

“We have not picked up, I don’t care what you read or people say, we have not in my time picked up someone who was covered by DACA,” Kelly said.

Kelly also said that DHS would not be separating families at the U.S.-Mexico southern border, an idea that was previously discussed to potentially deter illegal immigrants from wanting to cross the border.

Austin Mayor Steve Adler was one of the mayors who met with Kelly last week.

“It’s time to start opening the communication lines and build a relationship,” Adler said, according to the Austin American-Statesman. “To make sure the secretary understands that Austin and Travis County are not violating any state laws … and ultimately to help influence, hopefully, what the final regulatory structure is.”

http://www.themonitor.com/news/immig...809a07f5f.html