As pressure from Republicans and border states continues to ramp up against the Biden administration over a sharp increase in illegal immigration at the border, President Biden is yet to declare the situation a crisis. After removing nearly all of former President Donald Trump’s stricter immigration policies, which led to the substantial increase of migrants crossing the southern border illegally, Biden and his team are now aiming to push the blame on Trump.
“We are expelling families. We are expelling single adults. And we’ve made a decision that we will not expel young, vulnerable children. I think we are executing on our plans,” Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told NBC News.
Chuck Todd, the host of the program, then asked whether the new Biden policy would incentivize parents in Mexico to send their children to the border alone.
“We have a short-term plan, a medium-term plan, and a long-term plan, and the president and I have spoken to this repeatedly. Please remember something: That [former] President [Donald] Trump dismantled the orderly, humane, and efficient way of allowing children to make their claims under United States law in their home countries,” he added.
The Biden administration has also been criticized for how it has handled press access, Getty photographer John Moore alleged that the media has “zero access” to the border.
“I respectfully ask US Customs and Border Protection to stop blocking media access to their border operations I have photographed CBP under Bush, Obama and Trump but now – zero access is granted to media. These long lens images taken from the Mexican side,” Moore wrote to Twitter on Friday.
