Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson on Friday visited the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center, which opened in Artesia, New Mexico, on June 27 but has recently been used to house about 400 immigrants.

Johnson delivered a message on behalf of the White House and President Barack Obama's administration: "Our message to those who are coming here illegally, to those who are contemplating coming here illegally: 'We will send you back,'" Johnson said.

According to CNN, about 57,000 child immigrants have crossed the U.S.-Mexico border in the last nine months.

The recent influx of immigrant minors, who have traveled to the U.S. all the way from Central America fleeing regional violence, have created national headlines and controversy in the nation's border states and Washington, D.C.

Obama urged Congress on Wednesday to approve a $3.7 billion emergency fund that would go toward increased border security and expedited removals of the children from the U.S. back to their homelands of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.

"People in Central America should see and will see that if they make this journey and spend several thousand dollars to do that we will send them back and they will have wasted their money," Johnson said.

The department has also worked to dispel smugglers' lies that the U.S. is giving migrants a "free pass" to stay in the country, Johnson said Friday.

"I think it's fair to say that a good number of (the migrants at the Artesia facility) were surprised that they were being detained," Johnson said. "I think that they expected to be apprehended and simply let go into the interior and they're surprised they're being detained and they're being send back so quickly."

The White House said the immigrants would go through due process, but the president said during his visit to Texas on Wednesday that most would likely be sent back.

The New Mexico facility, which can hold 700 people, expected to see more arrivals Friday evening, but they are subject to "expedited removal," CNN reported.