Biden makes 'no apologies' for Trump border rollback

Morgan Chalfant
The Hill
Thu, 25 Mar 2021 02:21 UTC

© Shutterstock/The Atlantic/Daily Mail/KJN

VP Harris • President Biden • Drawings by migrant children held in detention

President Biden said Thursday that he makes "no apologies" for rolling back former President Trump's immigration policies as he defended his administration's response to the swell of migrants at the southern border with Mexico.

"All the policies that were underway were not helping at all, did not slow up the amount of immigration and as many people coming," Biden told reporters at his first formal press conference when asked whether he moved too quickly to undo the former president's past executive actions on immigration.

Comment: Once in place, Trump's strategy was successful and validated by Mexican President AMLO. Biden has no strategy - other than 'not Trump'.

See also:

• Mexico capitulates, signs migrant-control agreement - US tariffs 'indefinitely suspended'
• Donald Trump agrees to meet Mexican president south of 'the wall' after immigration speech
• Mexican govt. aids Trump border reforms by helping US 'meter' rate of caravan asylum applications
• Mexican officials say Central American migrants who rushed US border will face deportation

Biden specifically mentioned his efforts to halt the "Remain in Mexico" policy and stop separations of migrant families at the border that were implemented under the Trump administration.

"I make no apology for that. I make no apologies for ending programs that did not exist before Trump became president that have an incredibly negative impact on the law, international law, as well as on human dignity. I make no apologies for that."

Biden also said that the images of migrant children crowded together at a Customs and Border Protection (CBP) facility in Donna, Texas, are "totally unacceptable" and said his administration is working as quickly as possible to expand spaces for migrant children to be housed safely. Biden told a reporter who described the scenes and asked if they were acceptable:

"That's a serious question, right? Is it acceptable to me? Come on. That's why we're going to be moving a thousand of those kids out quickly. That's why I've been working from the moment this started to happen to find additional access for children. That is totally unacceptable."

Biden also committed to transparency with respect to the situation at the border as his administration has come under growing pressure to increase access for journalists and immigration advocates.

"You'll have full access to everything once we get things moving," Biden said, responding later that he didn't know when journalists would have full access.

Comment: Biden and Harris are reactionists unable to distinguish what works and consequently maintain it. Neither have the open mindset needed to solve America's problems.

Vice President Kamala Harris admitted Wednesday on CBS This Morning that the surge of unaccompanied migrant children at the U.S.-Mexico border was a "huge problem."

Anchor Gayle King said:

"Let's look at what's happening at the border. Rightly or wrongly, people are coming in record numbers because they believe the Biden administration has encouraged certainly children to come. What are you going to do about that? It's chaotic. Some are calling it a crisis. You all, your team is under fire because both Republicans and Democrats said, look, if you're going to change the Trump policy, the previous policy, at least have a game plan. There doesn't appear right now to be a game plan."

Harris said,

"Well, OK, look, it's a huge problem. I'm not going to pretend it's not. it's a huge problem. Are we looking at overcrowding at the border in particular of these kids? Yes. Should these kids be in the custody of HHS, the Health and Human Services instead of the Border Patrol? Yes. Should we be processing these cases faster? Yes. This is, however, not going to be solved overnight. There are things that we need to do, especially since there was a system in place previously, before the last administration, to allow us to process these kids in their country of origin, that was dismantled. We've to reconstruct it. It's not going to happen overnight. But you know, we have senior administration officials now in Mexico and Guatemala also dealing with in addition to what needs to happen at the border.

"Look we've been in office less than a hundred days we're addressing it, we're dealing with it, but it's going to take some time, and are we frustrated? Are you frustrated? Yes, we are."

See also:

• Photojournalist, removed by law enforcement for photographing migrants, calls on Biden admin to lift 'media border ban'
• 15K+ migrant children now held in US custody amid border surge
• Trump thumps Biden: He turned a 'national triumph into a national disaster'
• Rep. Sanchez: Not appropriate for reporters to see inside border facilities for children