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For weeks, the Biden administration struggled to keep up with an influx of migrants to the southern border, raising questions about the impact of its policies and its ability to deliver on promises made by then-candidate Biden during The electoral campaign.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki was asked about the issue at her press conference on Tuesday, prompting her to push back adding labels to the situation.
“I don’t think we have to sit here and put new labels on what we’ve already conveyed is a challenge,” she said.
As early as February 25, Psaki wondered if the southern border was facing a “crisis”. “I don’t think I’m going to put new labels on it from here or the podium, but it’s a priority for the administration,” she said.
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At that time, Axios reported that more than 700 children had been placed in the custody of CBP (Customs and Border Protection) and reports surfaced that the administration was opening a facility to house migrant children.
These developments prompted questions about Biden’s candidacy, which included, among other things, a pledge to end former President Trump’s practice of “caging children.” While the White House has argued it does not put children in “cages,” many have denounced the practice as a continuation of what migrants saw under Trump. Biden also reportedly told lawmakers in 2019 that he would not be detaining 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, hoping to avert another border crisis. Meanwhile, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has denied that the border faces a crisis, instead saying that “there is a challenge at the border that we manage, and we have our dedicated resources. to its management “.
CNN later reported that Health and Human Services (HHS), which takes care of migrant children after CBP, was struggling to keep pace with arrivals. “We apprehend more children than we can free,” said a senior DHS official. A senior CBP official similarly said “[a]All the waiting places are full, there is a constant backlog. “
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CBP’s capacity was said to have come under additional strain, as the agency kept the children in their care for more than three days. The situation has been made worse by the ongoing pandemic which has limited the ability of the HHS to accommodate the influx of migrants.
Psaki has argued that the administration is seeking to comply with COVID-19 protocols, but it is unclear to what extent authorities are controlling migrants for the virus. According to Representative Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, last week thousands of migrants were not tested.
“More than 10,000 people have entered through the lower valley of the Rio Grande,” Cuellar said, according to KTXS 12. “These people are not being tested.”
CBP reportedly disagrees, telling the point of sale that “CBP staff perform initial inspections for symptoms or risk factors associated with COVID-19 and consult with on-site medical staff, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ( U.S. CDC) or local health systems as applicable. “
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On March 5, Psaki told reporters that Biden had asked senior members of his team to visit the border and brief him on the government’s response to the migrant plight. Just days before that, CBP said 13 migrants were killed in a car crash in southern California after being smuggled, along with dozens of others, across the border. .
The border officials’ meeting appears to have taken place on Saturday when Mayorkas and other officials discussed capacity needs at the border.
“Officials also discussed ways to ensure the fair and humane treatment of immigrants, the security of the workforce and the well-being of neighboring communities in the face of a global pandemic,” the White House said.
Days later, Mayorkas sent an email asking DHS staff to help with the “migration push along the southwest border”.
He added: “You have probably seen the news regarding 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 our nation has a safe, orderly and humane immigration system while continuing to balance all other critical DHS missions.”
Mayorkas has also publicly acknowledged the stressful nature of the situation. “It’s a stressful challenge, and we are – that’s why, quite frankly, we work as hard as we do not just to meet the urgency of the challenge, but also to build the capacity to handle it and to respond to our humanitarian action aspirations in execution of the president’s vision, ”he said at a briefing last week.
Former Trump administration officials have warned that Biden’s policies will lead to a devastating wave at the border.
“The radical and open policies at the borders of this administration … [have] has eroded all the effective tools of authority we have, ”former acting CBP commissioner Mark Morgan told Fox News last week.
“And now they are shocked that we are seeing a crisis on our southern border which is already there. It is really remarkable what we are seeing.” Morgan, in particular, argued that the administration’s policies encourage illegal immigration.
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The White House referred Fox News to Psaki’s comments during its press briefing on Tuesday.
On March 2, Psaki said: “We are not encouraging people to come, but we also believe, unlike the old administration, that we are not going to refuse children under the age of 18.”
Fox News’s Adam Shaw and Peter Hasson contributed to this report.
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