The Biden administration has been struggling for weeks to keep up with the influx of migrants to the southern border, raising questions about the impact of its policies and whether it will live up to the promises made by candidate Biden on the campaign. .
White House press secretary Jen Psaki was asked about the issue during her press conference on Tuesday and asked her to push back to add labels to the situation.
“I do not think we need to sit here and put new labels on what we have already transferred, a challenge,” she said.
Already on February 25, Psaki equated whether the southern border had a ‘crisis’. “I do not think I will put new labels of this or from the podium on it, but it is a priority of the government,” she said.
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Around that time, Axios reported that more than 700 children had been placed under the supervision of the Customs and Border Protection (CBP), and the news surfaced that the administration would open a facility to house migrant children.
These developments have raised questions about Biden’s candidacy, which includes a promise to end former President Trump’s practice of ‘putting children in cages’. While the White House maintains that it does not place children in ‘cages’, many people have rejected the practice as a continuation of what migrants saw under Trump. Biden also reportedly told lawmakers that he would not detain migrant children.
Last week, The New York Times reported that Biden had brought the matter to the attention of Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador in hopes of avoiding another border crisis. Meanwhile, Home Security Minister Alejandro Mayorkas denied that the border was facing a crisis, saying instead that there was a challenge to the border we were managing, and that we had devoted resources to managing it. ‘
CNN later reported that Health and Human Services (HHS), which oversees migrating children to CBP, is having trouble keeping up with the pace of arrivals. “We are involving more children than we can release,” said a senior DHS official. A senior CBP official also said “[a]When the holding places are full, there is a constant backlog. ‘
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The capacity of CBP has reportedly been under extra strain as the agency has been keeping children in their custody for more than three days. The situation was exacerbated by the ongoing pandemic that limited HHS’s ability to accommodate the influx of migrants.
Psaki maintained that the government was trying to comply with COVID-19 protocols, but it was unclear how many authorities were investigating migrants on the virus. According to Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, last week thousands of migrants were not tested.
“More than 10,000 people entered through the lower Rio Grande Valley,” Cuellar said according to KTXS 12. “The people are not being tested.”
CBP allegedly disagreed with this, saying that CBP staff do initial inspections for symptoms or risk factors associated with COVID-19 and with on-site medical staff, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) or local health systems, where appropriate, consult. “
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By March 5, Psaki told the press that Biden had asked senior members of his team to visit the border and inform him of the government’s response to the migration situation. Just days before, CBP said 13 migrants were killed in a car accident in Southern California after being smuggled across the border along with dozens of others.
The border meeting of the officials apparently took place on Saturday when Mayorkas and other officials discussed the capacity needs at the border.
“Officials have also discussed ways to ensure the fair and humane treatment of immigrants, the safety of the workforce and the well-being of communities in the vicinity of a global pandemic,” the White House said.
Days later, Mayorkas sent an email asking DHS staff to help with the ‘increase in migration along the South West border’.
He added: “You have probably seen the news about the overwhelming number of migrants seeking access to this country along the Southwest Border.”
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“President Biden and I are committed to ensuring that our nation has a secure, orderly and humane immigration system while continuing to balance all other critical DHS missions.”
Mayorkas also publicly acknowledged the stressful nature of the situation. “It’s a stressful challenge, and we are – that’s why we honestly work just as hard as we do not only to address the urgency of the challenge, but also to build the capacity to manage it and “to address our humanitarian problems, aspirations to carry out the president’s vision,” he said during a briefing last week.
Former Trump administration officials have warned that Biden’s policies will lead to a devastating boom on the border.
“The radical, open border policy of this government … [have] the successful instrument of authority we have has eroded, ”former CBP acting commissioner Mark Morgan told Fox News last week.
“And now they are shocked that we are seeing a crisis on our southern border that is already here. It is remarkable what we are seeing.” Morgan in particular argued that government policies encourage illegal immigration.
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The White House referred Fox News to Psaki’s comments during its press conference on Tuesday.
On March 2, Psaki said: “We do not encourage people to come, but we also believe, unlike the previous government, that we are not going to turn away children under 18.”
Adam Shaw and Peter Hasson of Fox News contributed to this report.