border i willegally. yesterday they acknowledged 471 were deported. were you aware that the zero-tolerance policy would lead to minors being separated from their parents? as we increase consequences when they break the law i have such limited time, madame secretary. i m sure that you can appreciate that. we in this country do not take the children to jail. so i take that is a yes. nielsen also againdefended t president declaring a national emergency so he could get funding for a border wall. even many republicans are now voicing skepticism about that move. jessica schneider has more. reporter: democrats hammering secretary nielsen so the zero-tolerance policy that resulted in children being separated from their families last summer and they also grilled into whether president trump s emergency declaration to build his border wall is really necessary. secretary nielsen defended the president and she stuck to the
administration s stance that this is truly an emergency at the border. they threw out some numbers to justify that claim saying if the numbers continue at their current pace, that the number of illegal immigrants crossing could reach close to 1 million by the end of the year. now, that number in itself would not be record-breaking since there were more than 1 million immigrants that came across in the year 2006. but democrats continued to hammer secretary nielsen on trump administration policies. yes or no, are we still putting children in cages? to my knowledge, cbp never purposely put a child in a cage purposely or whatever, are we putting children in cages as of today? children are processed at the border facility stations that you ve been at, some of and i ve seen the cages. i just want you to admit that the cages exist. any asylum seeker who comes to a port of entry, you