The Biden government is facing an “overwhelming” number of migrants on the southern border, while scrambling to build new facilities for child migrants, but refusing to describe the situation as a “crisis”.
“It doesn’t matter what you call it. It’s a huge challenge,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Thursday before saying, “We do not feel the need to play games with what they call it. not. “
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While the numbers at the border have been increasing for months, especially of unaccompanied children (UACs) and family units, they have increased since President Biden took office. The number of UACs detained has tripled in recent weeks, with more than 100,000 migrating encounters in February.
Critics have blamed the dramatic liberalization of immigration policy and the return of the Trump era’s border protection for encouraging the flow and removal of instruments with which migrants can be detained outside or to their homelands.
The Biden government claimed that it was replacing the ‘cruelty’ of the previous government with a more ‘humane’ system and warned that it would take time. But it has refused to acknowledge that there is in fact a ‘crisis’, preferring it to a ‘challenge’.
“I think the – the answer is no. I think there is a challenge at the border that we are managing, and we have our means to manage it,” Alejandro Mayorkas, DHS secretary, said last week.
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Psaki said earlier this week about a ‘crisis’:’ I do not think we need to sit here and put new labels on what we have already been told, but it is a challenge. What we have conveyed is a top priority for the president. ‘
Last week, Biden said “no” when he asked the same question.
This is a sharp contrast from 2019, when President Trump wanted to label this year’s migrant boom as a crisis, while insisting on stronger measures at the border.
“This is a humanitarian crisis – a heart crisis and a soul crisis,” Trump said in January 2019, months before the boom reached its peak.
So far in 2021, the numbers have been higher than in 2019, indicating that the crisis or ‘challenge’ could be significantly greater this year, and the government has moved to indicate that it recognizes this. It opened migration centers to handle family units and UACs, and looked at a military base in Virginia and other areas to house child migrants.
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And while it is not a crisis, officials still sounded the alarm about the situation.
“We are still struggling with the number of individuals in our custody, especially in a pandemic,” Troy Miller, acting CBP commissioner, said this week when announcing boundary numbers.
Mayorkas, who denied there was a crisis last week, sent DHS staff an email urging them to volunteer to help CBP across the border amid what he described as ‘overwhelming’ numbers.
“Today, I activated the Volunteer Force to support Customs and Border Protection (CBP) as they have an increase in migration along the Southwest Border,” Mayorkas said in an email to staff, seen by Fox News .
“You have probably seen the news about the overwhelming number of migrants seeking access to this country along the Southwest Border,” he said. “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.”
But officials have continued with sometimes acrobatic answers in response to questions about whether there is a crisis at the border.
“You know, I think the … I’m not trying to be cute here, but I think the fact is: we have to do what we do no matter what anyone calls the situation,” said Roberta Jacobson, coordinator. for the southern border, said in a press release on Wednesday.
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“And the fact is that we are all committed to improving the situation, to switching to a more humane and efficient system. And whatever you mention will not change what we do because we are urgent, of the President, to put our system in order and make sure that we can better handle the hopes and dreams of these migrants in their homeland, ‘she said.
Biden was again asked by reporters at a hardware store this week if there was a crisis on the border. He did not respond, and reporters were led away by his team.
“Come, push, let’s go,” said an assistant.