White House says it must ‘work more’ to discourage illegal migrants coming to US
Thousands of illegal immigrants are being set free across the country as the crisis on the southern border escalates — and the White House admitted Monday it isn’t doing enough to discourage people from seeking unlawful entry to the United States.
Speaking to reporters during a press briefing, White House press secretary Jen Psaki acknowledged the failures after being pressed about the administration’s handling of the situation.
“I would say it’s clear we need to work more on getting the message out and being very clear, now is not the time to come,” said Psaki, before reiterating the Biden administration’s claim that “the majority of people who come to the border are turned away.”
“Yes, we have changed the policies of the last administration as it relates to unaccompanied children, but the majority of families, adults, the vast, vast majority are turned away at the border. And that is a message that clearly we need to continue to look for means and ways of getting out, you know, more and more out to the region,” she continued.
Her comments followed the revelation that under President Biden, the Department of Homeland Security will convert two immigrant family detention centers in South Texas into Ellis Island-style rapid processing facilities, and has already emptied a facility in Pennsylvania.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement wrote in a court filing last Friday that while families continue to be detained at its locations in Karnes City and Dilley, adults and children are all released within 72 hours.
Migrant families previously held at a third facility in Leesport, Pennsylvania, have all already been released, according to the ICE disclosure made Friday.
Despite establishing multiple new tent-style shelters and loosening COVID-19 restrictions, the Domestic Policy Council is telling Biden that the administration will fall short of its needs by a couple thousand.
The number of unaccompanied minors and families arriving at the border this year “are expected to be the highest numbers observed in over 20 years,” senior ICE official Russell Hott wrote in an email sent to staff members on Thursday, according to a Washington Post report.
Even as the two facilities in southern Texas are transformed into rapid processing centers, that “may not be sufficient to keep pace with apprehensions,” Hott said in the email reviewed by the Washington Post.
Those who cannot be housed at those centers even for 72 hours will be transferred to nearby hotels.
Former President Donald Trump’s departure has undone key border initiatives. It has set off a new caravan to the US border of Central American and Mexican migrants, which includes thousands of unescorted children.
In his first month, Biden ended the construction of Trump’s signature US-Mexico border wall and began to end the “Remain in Mexico” policy under which about 71,000 Central American asylum applicants were awaiting rulings in Mexico.
He issued an order affirming the 2012 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which gives work permits and protection from deportation to people brought illegally to the US as minors, and proposed legislation that would create a path to citizenship for the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants in the US.
Psaki said during her Monday briefing that she did not plan to offer regular updates on the administration’s deliberation regarding how it will be tackling the crisis.
“I don’t anticipate that we’re going to give extensive briefings about internal policy processes or internal discussions that the policy team will have with the president,” the White House press secretary said.
Asked about the recent immigration policy changes under the new president, former acting DHS Secretary Chad Wolf told Fox News Monday, “We had a system in place when we left the administration that allowed to deal with a surge in the number of folks coming across that border illegally. And what we’ve seen the Biden administration do since Inauguration Day really is to dismantle each and every one of those programs.”
“You mentioned the Remain in Mexico program but also our asylum cooperative agreements, obviously construction of the border wall and the list goes on and on and on,” he continued.
As for how they would replace it, Wolf added, “And as far as I can tell the only thing they’ve replaced it with is a message that says, ‘you can come, but just don’t come now,’ which we know it doesn’t work. And then obviously the other tool they have put on the table is simply catch and release which is going to incentivize more and more.”
Psaki said during her Monday briefing that she did not plan to offer regular updates on the administration’s deliberation regarding how it will be tackling the crisis.
“I don’t anticipate that we’re going to give extensive briefings about internal policy processes or internal discussions that the policy team will have with the president,” the White House press secretary said.
Holy shyte - yeah, let's keep the people totally kept out of what we do or how it's gonna get done or how much it's gonna cost or how many ILLEGAL ALIENS will be released ILLEGALLY.
Yeah - that's the ticket.
Let's not work to contain the ILLEGAL ALIENS unlike the prior administration.
Asked about the recent immigration policy changes under the new president, former acting DHS Secretary Chad Wolf told Fox News Monday, “We had a system in place when we left the administration that allowed to deal with a surge in the number of folks coming across that border illegally. And what we’ve seen the Biden administration do since Inauguration Day really is to dismantle each and every one of those programs.”
“You mentioned the Remain in Mexico program but also our asylum cooperative agreements, obviously construction of the border wall and the list goes on and on and on,” he continued.
Former President Donald Trump’s departure has undone key border initiatives. It has set off a new caravan to the US border of Central American and Mexican migrants, which includes thousands of unescorted children.
Dems will reap the negative fallout from their stupidity come the midterms
You must be a youngster to be making predictions.
There are no more Caravans. It's now Just a River of People flowing towards the border and it's at flood stage.
add that one to the "trump will win in a landslide" list...
I loved the part about ICE catching the illegals and them letting them go. Big problem is they are letting them go on the side of the border, which is the U.S. SIDE!
Here's a local story about Border Patrol dumping illegals into AZ border towns that are not equipped to handle them. The border towns call ICE for help and ICE tells them to call Border Patrol. It's a mess.
Biden should not have just dismantled the previous system without a new system ready to take up the slack, but I guess the push to get rid of all things Trump had to take priority.
They can say whatever the hell they want publicly to satisfy their sheeple and complaint mainstream media; but the facts are that every one of Biden's actions since taking office has been to ring the dinner bell long and loud for illegals to come across our border.
This is a situation entirely of his and the Democrats making.
Oh, no, you know they think it is all Trump's fault that Democrats constantly lobby for amnesty for illegal aliens.
Some, mostly on the right, desire a Berlin Wall type barrier to the South between the "brown people" and America. No need for a Berlin wall on the Northern border because those are white people who mostly speak English apparently. Some on the left think creating legislation that allows more immigrants, much like the millions who came from Europe over the last 240 years, to come to our shores and seek sanctuary is a good thing, those on the right seem anathema to such a rationalization. The only difference is that the majority from the Southern border are brown skinned and don't speak English as well, which of course would get the white supremacist's, conservative xenophobes and other bitter bigots up in arms, exactly the types of people Trump worked into a frenzy with his regular lies about a full border wall and Mexico supposedly paying for it. Of course it was bullshit rhetoric to get these dumb shit gullible bigots to vote for him, and sadly, it worked the first time, and apparently the second though thankfully there were as many of them as Trump hoped. Thankfully, the 2020 Presidential election showed there are far more rational Americans than there are gullible dumb shit bigots. It's no wonder that many immigrants are wishing to come to America again now that it has a competent leader who doesn't dismiss them as a murdering rapist drug dealers which is what the majority of Trump supporters thought about all of them even though it's only a tiny fraction of immigrants who actually commit crimes after coming to America. Much like the European immigrants that preceded them they don't want to rock the boat and risk being sent back to their home countries where their chances of a safe and prosperous life were almost nil.
Why do you always seem to assume that anyone who expresses any interest at all in knowing who is coming into our country, when they are coming, and when they are leaving is such a racist, xenophobic thing?
Some of us kind of like following laws.
And wish everyone did.
Instead of flaunting every law they don't personally like or approve of---fuck what the majority of Americans voted for, right?
Sure, sure, that was why so many white supremacist's rallied to Trumps when he called Mexican's crossing the border "rapists" and drug dealers even though the actual facts show that a very small portion of border crossers are such types of people.
Because those who seem so concerned with immigrants are often bigots less concerned with the law and more concerned with losing their fantasy "white culture". It's why they ignored such glaring lies as Trump calling them "rapists", it spoke to the bigots in a way no one had in a long time, it took they and their delusional concerns seriously.
The majority of Americans voted for a return to normalcy instead of ridiculous rhetoric and lies repeated over and over by dumb shit xenophobes trying desperately to demonize anyone from the South seeking asylum or trying to immigrate as some giant muscle calved drug mule or wanton sexual criminal. The fact that so many dumb shit Trump supporters bought his lies says more about them than it does about the liar telling the lies.
Another big lie some conservative dumb shits like to repeat is that Democrats and liberals want "open borders". This is total bullshit. I just want our borders treated the same regardless of which country or which skin color the immigrant happens to have. I also want effective border control which means using the latest technology instead of archaic expensive physical barriers which are easily defeated with simple technology from Home Depot.
Read this very carefully. If you have a problem with what other people have said or done, take it up with THEM. I speak for myself.
Hell, my reply applies equally to every paragraph in your post.
"Brown people" what a fucking racist thing to say- typical of leftist hypocrites.
I am against illegal aliens no matter where they come from. If they overstay student or work visas as well they need to be deported. Obey our laws or get the fuck out. Race, gender, sex, religion, and all of that other bullshit doesn't matter.
Only the left thinks that an open border US would be a good thing.
I always say "illegal aliens" and THEY always "assume" I mean "brown people".
I'm with you:
You are welcome to come here provided you do so legally.
Seems like such a reasonable request.
Many people on the Left assume that everyone who lives south of the border is brown. They're usually shocked to find out this white dude is the president of Mexico:
And before him, it was this white dude:
And before him, well,
you get the picture(s).
If your comment about your the "brown people" was not so pathetic it would almost be amusing. I happen to be one of those "brown people" that lives 6 blocks from the AZ/Mexico border fence in SE Arizona and was and still an all for the border wall and found your comment to be offensive and very ill informed as it is obvious you live nowhere on or near our Southern border, thus lacking a common frame of reference to understand what conditions on our Southern borders are really like for those of us that live and have to deal with said conditions on a day to day basis! Try actually coming down to a the border and talking to the folks that live here instead of listening to the biased main stream media. You might get educated and get your eyes opened!
Some of these folks don't give a damn about "legal", unless a Republican breaks a law!
That is the Moreno Spanish influence. My maternal grandfather's family was Castillian Spanish from Madrid, Spain and he fair complexion, blonde hair, and blue eyes.
it's only fitting they spend time getting done to them what they've done to others.
Meh.
Using the term "brown people" repeatedly shows a racist mindset.
Oh, and learn how to make paragraph breaks.
As is calling Americans racist because they want sovereignty like every nation deserves.
We get it - progressives want to repopulate the country and you say it's with brown people. Ok. Shall the brown get an automatic ticket in for their color? We can hold the whites at the border. Or maybe we can simply do it Biden's way - let them enter illegally and then give them amnesty at some point.
They know. They call Americans racists because they have been allowed to get away with it. They have divided the country along racial lines for one reason - to win elections.
There are a lot of sweeping & demonizing generalizations in that statement.
The worst part is that it seems to have been missed or gotten a pass by the mods.
Biden put out the welcome mat for them
Whaatt??? Why, that's terrible! The xenophobia! The inhumanity! How do they sleep at night?
Oh yeah. I'm sure it's simply that all those people don't understand that we have a time-consuming process for entering the country legally. They just haven't gotten the word. We need to like, Tweet more. Maybe post a sign or something. You can't blame these people. I bet no one has ever thought of just telling them nicely that that can't just waltz over the border whenever they feel like it.
As soon as they hear about this, the flow of people will stop. Simple problem? Simple solution.
/s