- The Biden government has backfired on the reopening of a Texas facility for young migrants.
- There are thousands of underage minors trying to cross the border.
- Biden said his government is seeking to reunite migrant children with their families.
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President Joe Biden said Friday that a facility for young migrants recently reopened in Texas is a temporary measure the government has taken to deal with the growing number of unaccompanied children crossing the U.S.-Mexico border.
The Biden government has backfired on the decision of progressive democratic legislators and some on the right.
“At the moment, thousands of children are coming across the border unaccompanied,” Biden said in an interview with Univision. “We were able to place a significant number of them in licensed facilities across the country. In Texas, they opened one … which was used in the last government. Our hope and expectation is that it will not stay open for very long and that we will be able to accommodate every child who crosses the border safely in a licensed facility. ‘
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said on Tuesday that the government needed additional space because of COVID-19 social distancing health measures.
“To ensure the health and safety of these children, [the Department of Health and Human Services] ‘has taken steps to open an emergency facility to add capacity where the children can receive the necessary care before being placed safely with families and sponsors,’ she said.
According to the White House, the reopening of the facility was a better option to send migrant children back on a treacherous journey to their homelands.
More than 2,000 unaccompanied migrants were intercepted by the U.S. Border Patrol last week, according to The New York Times.
Biden said his government is seeking to reunite migrant children with their families.
“Bring them to the families they came here to see or were looking for,” he said. “We have already connected thousands of them in this way. So it is our hope to unite these children with families while they wait to be tried.”
The Carrizo Springs plant, which previously housed oil workers, was relocated to a holding facility in 2019 under the administration of former President Donald Trump, a decision widely criticized by Democrats at the time.
Progressive lawmakers, including Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, have blasted the government’s effort to reopen the facility.
“It’s not good, it’s never been good, it’s not going to be good either – regardless of the administration or party,” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted earlier this week. “Our immigration system is based on a carceral framework. It is a coincidence that the challenge for approaching both of these issues is ‘controversial’.”
She added: ‘It’s just 2 [months] in this administration and our loaded, unfair immigration system will not change in that time. That’s why bold memories are so important. ‘