CrimsonPhantom
CUSA Curator
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RE: Biden's* Border Bungling (Hospitals starting to fill up with Covid Illegals)
Quote:White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki wilted under pressure during Tuesday’s press conference as reporters repeatedly pressed the administration for answers about President Joe Biden’s border crisis.
One of the most notable exchanges came when a reporter asked Psaki if newly reported-on statistics about the border crisis were accurate. Psaki responded by claiming that the reporter should ask the Department of Homeland Security about the numbers because “it’s not our program.” The Department of Homeland Security is run by the Biden administration and Biden’s nominee to lead the department, Alejandro Mayorkas, was confirmed by the U.S. Senate and he now runs the department.
“I would encourage you to go back to them and ask them again. We’re not going to confirm them from the White House. It’s not our program,” Psaki claimed. “It’s the Department of Homeland Security.”
WATCH:
During another exchange, Psaki was pressed about whether the administration would admit that there was a crisis going on on the southern border.
“Look, I don’t think we need to sit here and put new labels on what we have already conveyed is challenging, what we have conveyed is a top priority for the president, what our policy teams are working on every single day,” Psaki said. “They obviously, there was a trip to the border this weekend. They are working over the course of every day since then on putting in place policies that can help address what we’re seeing and help ensure that we are keeping these kids safe and moving them as quickly as possible from border patrol facilities to shelters where they can have access to educational resources, health resources, mental health resources, legal aid, et cetera.”
Several minutes later, another reporter pressed Psaki again on the border crisis, asking, “why has this administration been so reluctant to call it a crisis?”
“With the huge uptick in the number of migrants being detained, including thousands of children, if that doesn’t qualify as a crisis, what does?” the reporter continued.
“Well, because we think that it’s most important to explain the substantive policy of what’s happening, what the root causes are of why these kids are coming, and what we’re doing to try to solve what is a very challenging circumstance at the border,” Psaki said. ”
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Quote:The Biden administration scrambled to find shelter beds for unaccompanied children arriving at the southern border despite Trump administration official’s warning of increasing migration to the U.S.
Last week, facilities holding migrant children were allowed to open at 100% operational capacity despite COVID-19 regulations, a Health and Human Services (HHS) spokesperson confirmed to the Daily Caller News Foundation Friday. Nearly 6,000 unaccompanied children were encountered in January, according to Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
“We were sounding the alarm right after the election when the numbers started going up,” acting CBP commissioner Mark Morgan told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “No one was listening, before I left HHS, [the Office of Refugee Resettlement] was already complaining that the UAC’s [unaccompanied alien children] they were testing at an 11% positive rate for COVID.”
“I think they’re [the Biden administration] absolutely caught off guard by the numbers that have come to the border as fast as they are,” Morgan said.
Around 350 unaccompanied minors are crossing the border daily and CBP apprehended over 4,000 migrants on multiple days during the first week of March, The Washington Post reported. The number of unaccompanied minors crossing the border has quadrupled since fall 2020 and overwhelmed HHS shelters are leaving the children in CBP custody longer than the legal limit.
“I think you’re going to see the unaccompanied minor numbers well in excess of 9,000 in February,” Morgan told the DCNF. He added that he expects unaccompanied children are spending, on average, around 80 hours in CBP custody.
The Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act requires that unaccompanied minors be transferred to ORR care except for in “exceptional circumstances,” according to the United States Government Accountability Office. Unaccompanied minors from Mexico and Canada may also be allowed decide to return to their country of residence.
Title 42 prohibited people from Mexico or Canada from entering the U.S. due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, according to CBP. However, the Biden administration repealed Title 42 mandated expulsions for unaccompanied minors, Morgan said.
“We’re right back where we were at the height of the crisis in 2019,” Morgan told the DCNF. “In February I think the numbers are going to be close to if not over 100,000 in a month, they’re getting 5,000 a day, over 400 UAC’s a day, under anyone’s standards those are crisis-level numbers.”
The Biden administration should return to some of the policies that were effective under the Trump administration such as the Migrant Protection Protocols, often referred to as the remain in Mexico program, John Hostettler, the vice president of federal affairs for States Trust, told the DCNF.
“I see it doing nothing but getting worse as the weather gets better,” Hostettler told the DCNF. “With the green light that the Biden administration is putting out I think that it’s just going to get worse.”
President Joe Biden issued a mandatory review of the Migrant Protection Protocols through an executive order in February, Reuters reported. Asylum seekers will no longer be registered with the program that kept around 65,000 migrants in Mexico as they awaited their court dates.
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Quote:Texas Governor Greg Abbott expressed outrage after learning the Biden Administration has not provided COVID-19 vaccinations to Border Patrol agents. Abbott called the lack of vaccinations “one of the most reprehensible things I’ve heard.”
“What I am about to tell you may be one of the most reprehensible things I’ve heard this whole time,” he said. “The Biden Administration is not providing vaccinations for the Border Patrol.”
The governor’s comments came during a press conference in Mission, Texas, on Tuesday after receiving a briefing from Rio Grande Valley Sector Border Patrol officials.
“We have Border Patrol [agents] whose lives are on the line of a daily basis — an hourly basis — and the Biden Administration will not provide those Border Patrol [agents] with the vaccinations they need” the outraged governor stated. “The Biden Administration should surge vaccines to Texas to all men and women on the Border Patrol this week.”
“Anything less than that is the epitome of inhumanity,” Abbot stated.
The governor reminded reporters that Border Patrol agents work for the federal government.
“They should be provided a vaccine by the federal government,” he explained. “The federal government has made a priority of vaccinating other federal government employees that are not on the front line like the Border Patrol. And that’s why I have this expectation that the Border Patrol agents, who are on the front line, be treated like other federal employees that have already been vaccinated by the federal government.”
“That’s why I demand that the president send vaccines to the Border Patrol this week to vaccinate our Border Patrol agents.”
Border Patrol agents are frequently exposed to migrants infected with the Coronavirus. In September, Breitbart Texas reported about agents rescuing a migrant woman who fell unconscious after being pulled out of a grain hopper rail car. Agents worked to save the woman’s life and later learned she tested positive for COVID-19.
“With a noted increase in COVID-19 infections among detainees, smugglers continue showing their lack of regard for the safety of the people they exploit by placing them in compromising, cramped spaces without regard to high temperatures, PPE, or means of escape,” Laredo Sector officials stated. “In doing so, not only do they endanger those being smuggled, but they also endanger our agents and communities.”
The city of Brownsville, Texas, reported last week that six percent of the migrants being released at bus stations by Border Patrol officials tested positive for COVID-19. All of these migrants were in contact with multiple Border Patrol agents and other CBP employees and contractors.
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Quote:On Tuesday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “The Story,” Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX) predicted that by the summer there will be “probably somewhere around a million people trying to get into this country illegally.”
McCaul said, “President Biden says he wants us to be humane. He’s actually created a humanitarian crisis. These poor children, they get trafficked all the way up that dangerous route. And now, we don’t have enough detention space to put them in, and then you’ve got the COVID crisis down there as well. I think they have created this Biden border crisis. They need to fix it.”
He added, “I think it’s not only a threat to these children who are being exploited, but — and they know the laws in our country. But it’s also a threat to Americans, this population coming in. Biden has cut off these agreements with Mexico, Central America, where they’d have to stay in Mexico to apply for asylum. And now, they’re — I’ve seen this before, Martha, and I predict this, by summer, you’re going to see, as my governor just said, probably somewhere around a million people trying to get into this country illegally. And as I’ve said before, it’s ironic that you can get into this country illegally easier than you can get a tour of this Capitol right behind me.”
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Quote:McALLEN, Texas—As President Joe Biden rolled back several existing border initiatives, the number of people crossing illegally into the United States skyrocketed.
In February—despite a week of freezing weather—Border Patrol apprehended 101,535 illegal border crossers along the southern border, according to Jaeson Jones, a former Texas Department of Public Safety captain. Another 26,000 people evaded capture, he said.
The February number is almost triple the apprehensions from February 2020, when Border Patrol caught almost 37,000 people, while in 2019, on the cusp of the most recent crisis, the number was almost 77,000.
Many of those crossing are unaccompanied minors, who cannot be turned back if they’re from a country other than Mexico. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has just opened a second facility for the burgeoning number of minors. As of Feb. 28, approximately 7,700 unaccompanied minors were being housed across in HHS facilities.
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Quote:Law enforcement sources report that U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is busing hundreds of unaccompanied children (UACs) from the Rio Grande Valley to other border communities to alleviate overcrowding.
The UACs are transferring to Laredo, Carrizo Springs, and Eagle Pass, Texas, for processing and temporary detention. The children are stuck in limbo at Border Patrol stations as the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) struggles to place them in suitable shelter facilities before release.
The movement of the UACs should come as no surprise. Apprehensions climbed steadily over the past weeks with nearly 2,000 arrests by Border Patrol on Saturday alone. Nearly 600 of those were unaccompanied children.
In a visit to the Texas border region on the same day, senior Biden Administration officials toured a Border Patrol Station and a Health and Human Services detention facility for UACs. Media were not permitted to accompany the delegation, so little is known about the visit.
Another senior CBP official is making a visit to the Rio Grande Valley. Sources report that Border Patrol Chief Rodney Scott is currently meeting with overwhelmed Border Patrol agents and exploring solutions for the UAC situation. There has been minimal news coverage of the visit, signaling that a previously reported media blackout continues.
Law enforcement sources indicate “got-away” numbers are on the rise as Border Patrol agents struggle to deal with humanitarian needs in lieu of conducting routine patrol activities. February apprehension statistics are set to be released later this week.
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Quote:As we reported earlier, Jen Psaki is refusing to say how many unaccompanied minor kids are being detained in custody amidst reports that the number has tripled in the last couple of weeks alone to 3250.
Psaki even had the audacity to refers reporters to the DHS for answers saying “it’s not our program” as if the DHS wasn’t part of the executive branch. Pro tip, Jen? It is, you guys are responsible for all of it. But this is the little game Psaki’s been playing with reporters, she sends them to an agency who then as the DHS did in this case then sends them back to Psaki, meanwhile still getting no answers. Meanwhile there are thousands more reported to be on the way here.
The Biden team was also tried to sell us on “migrant facilities” as though the ‘cages’ no longer existed. But the cages are still there, which the NY Times confirmed, noting that Biden was breaking the law in holding kids in CBP holding areas them for longer than 72 hours. Jen Psaki had previously tried to explain that ways suggesting it was due to the snowstorm in the middle of last month. But it’s still happening, likely because of the huge surge they created with their own policies.
The New York Times also termed the CBP holding areas as “jail-like facilities” avoiding the term ‘cages.’
“The number of migrant children in custody along the border has tripled in the past two weeks to more than 3,250, and many of them are being held in jail-like facilities for longer than the three days allowed by law.”
If Trump were in charge, we’d also see his name run throughout the tweet or blaming him within it. We’d probably also see stronger language about the law being broken. Now, notice no mention of Biden in the tweet or that all of this surge and more kids being held is because of Biden’s own policies.
Then they spread this nonsense, that it’s somehow “more humane.”
Pray tell, how? Biden’s actually holding more kids longer and breaking the law, what’s “more humane” about that?
But I will give them that at least they noted he was breaking the law and they did use the word “jail” (albeit “jail-like”).
So where are the Democrats and the rest of the media calling for Joe Biden to stop encouraging this situation and to call him out for breaking the law? We heard spin against Trump 24/7, most of which was unfair and Trump wasn’t making the situation worse by encouraging people to come here.
Link
Quote:Bonchie reported earlier on how White House press secretary Jen Psaki insulted our intelligence yet again during the daily press briefing when she was questioned on specifics about the border crisis.
When she was asked if the White House considered what was happening at the border a “crisis,” Psaki predictably did a semantics tap dance (as she often does) and stated that we didn’t “need to sit here and put new labels on what we have already conveyed is challenging.”
Another answer that defied all logic was when she was asked for more details on the number of migrants being held at the border.
One of Psaki’s go-to answers on border questions is to default to telling the journalist making the inquiry to press the Department of Homeland Security on the matter. Like clockwork, that’s exactly what happened when a reporter inquired about the numbers.
For those who missed it, here’s the incredible back and forth that happened in the briefing room when Psaki was asked if it was true that the number being held “had tripled.” She literally told the reporter that DHS was not the White House’s “program” and advised them to keep checking with DHS:
It was a bizarre answer to give considering DHS is, ya know, a federal department with officials who are supposed to be reporting to Biden as to what’s happening at this country’s southern border. So, yes, Biden should be able to provide these answers and Psaki should be able to relay them to reporters who ask about them. It’s probably in the top 5 on the border questions members of the White House press corps ask her on any given day.
The lack of preparedness on her part is part of a bigger problem we’ve seen from this White House over the last six weeks in terms of transparency. As the media spotlight on this issue gets brighter, the White House seems more and more hellbent on keeping people in the dark. This is all made worse by the fact that Biden’s handlers are steering reporters away from him as often as possible without allowing him to answer any questions about the situation down south, as happened during a public appearance Biden made this morning in DC.
Even more problematic on the White House’s unwillingness to provide specifics was this report from Fox News correspondent Peter Doocy, who said on the network tonight that Biden sent a delegation of lawmakers to the border over the weekend, but days later has not been briefed on it:
I mean it’s great Biden sent a group of lawmakers to dig deeper into what is going on, but where’s the sense of urgency in getting that information from the people who went and passing it along to the press and the public?
This is crazy. Next to the pandemic and the economy, the border crisis ranks right up there as a major issue the American people are paying attention to and deserve answers on. The fact that Biden has not yet met with the delegation he sent to the border to gather information raises more troubling questions as to just what’s going on and who might really be running things at the White House. It also makes Psaki’s attempts at redirecting reporters to the DHS look even more foolish.
Here’s the bottom line: Biden is the president. DHS reports to him. He sent a delegation on a fact-finding mission to the border several days ago. He should have these answers, and reporters should not be rerouted to DHS in order to get them.
I dunno, maybe frustrated reporters should throw caution to the wind and try directing questions about border security (and other issues) to Vice President Kamala Harris instead of Biden? At this point – or at least until Biden finally holds that first formal solo press conference, it might be worth a try.*
*I’m only being half sarcastic here, y’all.
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