For Immediate Release
DHS Press Office
Contact: 202-282-8010
SELLS, Ariz. — Today, Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson traveled to Douglas, Ariz., where he participated in workforce engagements with U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) personnel and later, sat down with local ranchers for the second time in a year to listen to their concerns and pledged to find workable solutions. He then toured a local ranch.
Secretary Johnson underscored the Department’s commitment to working with local communities to ensure the security of the Southwest border while at the same time working to ensure that we effectively and sensibly enforce our Nation’s immigration laws. Additionally, he reiterated that U.S. borders are not open to illegal migration and that to enforce this policy, the Department is maintaining, and adding to, the border security resources it put in place last summer to respond to the spike in illegal migration in south Texas. The Department is also moving forward with its unified, Department-wide Southern Border and Approaches Campaign plan. The plan establishes three new joint task forces, each headed by a senior DHS official, to direct the combined resources of CBP, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), and the U.S. Coast Guard to achieve a more unified border security effort across our southern border and maritime approaches.
Secretary Johnson also traveled to Sells, Ariz., where he met with Chairman Ned Norris and other tribal officials and elders of the Tohono O’odham Nation to discuss the ongoing collaboration with the Department of Homeland Security to safeguard tribal communities. Secretary Johnson highlighted the Department’s work with tribes on emergency management by supporting tribal communities before, during and after disasters.
For more information, visit www.dhs.gov.
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