Biden is on his heels amid a migrant surge at Mexico border
Category: News & Politics
Via: texan1211 • 3 years ago • 32 commentsBy: AAMER MADHANI and COLLEEN LONG (MSN)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
WASHINGTON (AP) — Somehow, they didn't see it coming.
Within weeks of Inauguration Day on Jan. 20, the Biden administration had reversed many of the most maligned Trump-era immigration policies, including deporting children seeking asylum who arrived alone at the U.S.-Mexico border and forcing migrants to wait in Mexico as they made their case to stay in the United States.
While the administration was working on immigration legislation to address long-term problems, it didn't have an on-the-ground plan to manage a surge of migrants. Career immigration officials had warned there could be a surge after the presidential election and the news that the Trump policies, widely viewed as cruel, were being reversed.
Now officials are scrambling to build up capacity to care for some 14,000 migrants now in federal custody — and more likely on the way — and the administration finds itself on its heels in the face of criticism that it should have been better prepared to deal with a predictable predicament.
"They should have forecasted for space (for young migrants) more quickly," said Ronald Vitiello, a former acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and chief of Border Patrol who has served in Republican and Democratic administrations. "And I think in hindsight, maybe they should have waited until they had additional shelter space before they changed the policies."
The situation at the southern border is complex.
Since Biden's inauguration, the U.S. has seen a dramatic spike in the number of people encountered by border officials. There were 18,945 family members and 9,297 unaccompanied children encountered in February — an increase of 168% and 63%, respectively, from the month before, according to the Pew Research Center. That creates an enormous logistical challenge because children, in particular, require higher standards of care and coordination across agencies.
Still, the encounters of both unaccompanied minors and families are lower than they were at various points during the Trump administration, including in spring 2019. That May, authorities encountered more than 55,000 migrant children, including 11,500 unaccompanied minors, and about 84,500 migrants traveling in family units.
Career immigration officials, overwhelmed by the earlier surges, have long warned the flow of migrants to the border could ramp up again.
Migrant children are sent from border holding cells to other government facilities until they are released to a sponsor. That process was slowed considerably by a Trump administration policy of "enhanced vetting," in which details were sent to immigration officials and some sponsors wound up getting arrested, prompting some to fear picking up children over worries of being deported. Biden has reversed that policy, so immigration officials hope the process will speed up now.
Biden administration officials have repeatedly laid blame for the current situation on the previous administration, arguing that Biden inherited a mess resulting from President Donald Trump's undermining and weakening of the immigration system.
The White House also points to Biden's decision to deploy the Federal Emergency Management Agency, known for helping communities in the aftermath of a natural disaster, to support efforts to process the growing number of unaccompanied migrant children arriving at the border.
Biden and others have pushed back on the notion that what's happening now is a "crisis."
"We will have, I believe, by next month enough of those beds to take care of these children who have no place to go," Biden said in a recent ABC News interview, when asked whether his administration should have anticipated the surge in young unaccompanied migrants as well as families and adults. He added, "Let's get something straight though. The vast majority of people crossing the border are being sent back ... immediately sent back."
Adam Isacson, an analyst at the human rights advocacy group Washington Office on Latin America, said Republicans' insistence that there is a "crisis" at the border is overwrought, but that the surge in migrants was predictable.
He called it a perfect storm of factors: hurricanes that hit Central America last fall; the economic fallout caused by the coronavirus pandemic; typical seasonal migration patterns; the thousands of Central American migrants already stuck at the border for months; and the persistent scourge of gang violence afflicting Northern Triangle countries — Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.
Isacson said the Biden administration may have been "two or three weeks" slow in preparing for the increase in unaccompanied young migrants and the subsequent housing crunch after announcing in early February it would stop deporting unaccompanied youths.
But Isacson added that the bottleneck was also affected by the lack of cooperation by the Trump administration with the Biden transition.
The Biden administration announced on Feb. 2 it would no longer uphold the Trump administration policy of automatically deporting unaccompanied minors seeking asylum. Two weeks later, the White House announced plans to admit 25,000 asylum-seekers to the U.S. who had been forced to remain in Mexico.
In subsequent weeks, the number of young migrants crossing without adults skyrocketed. Both Customs and Border Protection, and Health and Human Services officials have struggled to house the influx of children. Immigration officials say the number of adult migrants and families trying to enter the U.S. illegally also has surged.
Border patrol officials had encountered more than 29,000 unaccompanied minors since Oct. 1, nearly the same number of youths taken into custody for all of the previous budget year, administration officials say.
"Getting capacity up to deal with the unaccompanied minors is critical, but the numbers just don't bear out to pointing to a crisis," Isacson said.
That hasn't stopped Republicans -- including Trump and House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy of California -- from pillorying Biden.
"It's more than a crisis. This is a human heartbreak," said McCarthy, who led a delegation of a dozen fellow House Republicans to El Paso, Texas, on Monday.
Biden is also facing criticism from Republicans that his administration has sent mixed messages.
Critics have focused on public comments from Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, who earlier this month said the administration's message to migrants was "don't come now" and a slip by Roberta Jacobson, the White House's lead adviser on the border, who said in Spanish during a recent briefing the "border is not closed," before correcting herself.
The president and other administration officials in recent days have stepped up efforts to urge migrants not to come. Embassies in Northern Triangle countries are airing public service announcements underscoring the dangers of making the trek north.
Eric Hershberg, director of the Center for Latin American and Latino Studies at American University, said Biden's team faces a powerful counter-narrative as it attempts to persuade desperate Central Americans to stay put: chatter on social media from migrants who successfully made it across the border and smugglers who insist that now is the ideal time.
Hershberg cites a Honduran friend's reaction to U.S. warnings that migrants could face danger on the journey: "You know, you don't need to go with such uncertainty. You can just stay here and know that you'll be raped or killed."
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So, how long before the Biden Admin. attempts to blame Republicans for the crisis on the border due to the Administration's poorly-thought-out "plans"?
They're already doing it. They seem to never think beyond immediate gratification or consider unintended consequences. And the surge will likely increase until they clamp down.
The Dems saw it coming all right, but discounted and miscalculated the effects of it. And to top it off, tried to shift responsibility for it and make it a partisan issue to cover their woeful inability to deal with the crisis, thus leaving people like me and many others who live right on the Southern border having to deal with the consequences of having huge numbers of illegals streaming across our borders at will with little or no control by our government.
They believed their own propaganda from the Leftist Media and they though they could get away with it. The fact is most Americans are against Illegal Immigration even Democrats who hate Trump and Biden isn't fooling anyone with his lies. All those swing voters that chose "Centrist Joe" over Trump are freaking over his Leftist transformation. So much for the 2022 midterms say goodbye to the Senate and maybe the House too.
Dear God, i hope so!
The GOP has a much easier task retaking the House in 2022 than the Senate though both are possible. The house is a virtual certainty.
Two seats we lost this last election were only for two years so they'll be up for grabs in 2022. The Georgia seat we just lost in the runoff election to Rev. Raphael Warnock (Dem) will resume it's normal election cycle in 2022 so it could go R. Also Sen. John McCain's old seat in Arizona will be in play in 2022, Sen. Mark Kelly (Dem) just won it after being appointed after McCain's death but again it's only for two years. The Senate seats will be doubly important if the Dems are foolish enough to change the Filibuster plus we only need to take one to stop the commie agenda and we must do it in 22 because Biden is bad but Harris is worse and she might pull a LBJ and take his ass out so she can be the first woman president. Biden should be scared.
The flow of immigrants will not stop until the problems in Nicaragua and Honduras are addressed. Women are raped and killed with impunity. Children are abducted and trafficked and boys and young men are pressured, often violently, to join gangs. Wealthy cartels are funding and controlling the government and police departments. End the drug wars and most people will want to stay home.
Have the situations in Nicaragua and Honduras changed dramatically since Biden was elected?
I don't recall record numbers coming last year.
try 2019, feel free to look it up.
We are on pace to far surpass 2019, or any other year in the last two decades.
Feel free to look it up.
BTW, have the situations in those countries changed dramatically since Biden won?
I specified last year. Last year was 2020.
why are you deflecting?
Whether the situation has changed dramatically in Nicaragua and Honduras I don't know that that would really matter a great deal. trump basically stopped most all of the immigration putting it on essentially a hold.
Biden (unfortunately, without proper planning IMO ) opened the immigration process back up.
The floodgates opened in the immigrants minds and that is why the crisis at the border now is such an issue.
The combination of it all is the problem.
IMO: Both presidents fucked up. The lack of planning on both presidents parts caused major problems for both.
Trump made them stay in Mexico, afraid that their children would be taken and lost. They were afraid to go home. They stayed near the border and are now coming across the border and asking for asylum. Nobody packs up and leaves the only home they've ever had, walks a thousand miles with their children through countries where you're likely to be victimized just because they think Biden is nice.
So it isn't the problems in those countries causing the surge, it is the current Admin.'s policies.
Sorry, Biden screwed the pooch on this one.
You may want to reread my post. carefully !
Or just digest this section:
The combination of it all is the problem.
IMO: Both presidents fucked up. The lack of planning on both presidents parts caused major problems for both.
I read and understood your entire post, thanks.
If the situations haven't changed dramatically in those countries, and we didn't have a surge last year, the ONLY thing that has changed is Administrations and policies.
I know both sides have contributed to the overall problems by not enforcing laws and funding solutions.
No the backlog is part of the current problem.
The most yur gonna get from me tex is that IMO: Biden did not properly plan for the reopening.
Just like trump didn't Plan for his closing of the border.
Lack of planning on BOTH presidents parts helped lead to the current situation.
Whether the situation has changed much elsewhere or not.
Number of Migrants Waiting at US Border Surges to 40,000
Read more: Number of Migrants Waiting at US Border Surges to 40,000 | Newsmax.com
Thursday, 08 August 2019 11:38 AM
Based on Mexican government figures and reporting by The Associated Press, at least 40,000 migrants who have reached the U.S. border with Mexico are on a waiting list for an initial attempt to seek asylum or waiting for a court hearing in the U.S. after being sent back.
Turning Mexico into a waiting room for U.S. asylum seekers may be the Trump administration's most forceful response yet to a surge of migrants seeking humanitarian protection, many of them Central American families.
Read more: Number of Migrants Waiting at US Border Surges to 40,000 | Newsmax.com
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Immigration challenges mount for Biden amid migrant influx
Durbin told reporters Tuesday that he has asked the Biden administration to offer a plan to address the "reality at the border" and said it could become a part of immigration legislation.
Not another "We'll Fix It After the Amnesty" line of Bull.
Not really, "a PLAN to address the "reality at the border"
Sounds kinda logical to me for a change.
Considering every time in recent history any major changes in immigration and border security have ended up in such a logistical nightmare perhaps a little PLANNING would be a damn good idea !
The Trump administration did not ring the dinner bell for them to come; that was the damn Democrats!
Trump worked with Mexico to hold the illegals in Mexico until their trial dates. The fucking Democrats tried to circumvent that process at every turn.
Trump tried to secure the southern border; and the Democrats threw up every road block and delay they could. Until the damn borders (and I mean all of them) are secured; immigration reform will just becoming never ending amnesty. Which the Democrats seem to fervently want.
Biden and Democrats wouldn't know reality until it was parked directly in front of them. Sending every last illegal immigrant to Democratic politician homes would be the surest way to make them get take action. Right now it is the "Southern States" problems. So they don't give a shit.
again did not plan this out sufficiently for sure.
Sadly, Ronin that seems to be the same old problem when it comes to both immigration and border security .. every damn time, by both parties.Over and over. The lack of detailed planning does it in.
Sad
Trumps planning was just fine. He got it under control.
They are deliberately sending COVID positive illegals into states that have largely reopened to full capacity and pulled back on mask mandates. Coincidentally? I don’t think so.
That's a pretty inflammatory statement Maga I'd kinda like to know where you come up with it.
But, I don't feel like taking time out of my life to collaborate it or disprove it.
I do think something that bold needs some backing though for me to give it much thought or attention or believe.
PS: Keeping in mind If you try backing that up, as with you I don't believe every news site either.
They are being transported here. If you notice, many are wearing sandals, clean, new clothes, and not looking travel weary!! They don't even look tired!! They are being provided meals, made-up tents with cots inside to sleep on, and, of course, cell phones given to them!!
Trumps closing of the border was a better idea and was working. We should of kept on with it.
Oh BTW where is the protests from the left about bidens cages that they are putting people in.
15,200 of them - up from 3,600 in January.
Hmmmm. How's that working for you Joe?
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I have a couple more minutes, anything else I can look up for you ?
duuu