30 days after being declared the ‘Border Czar’ by President Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris finally visited a border state Friday: New Hampshire.
“It’s really unbelievable, again, that either the president or the vice president has not gone down to the border,” said former DHS acting Secretary Chad Wolf.
“Now, I understand the president’s busy,” he continued. “The vice president should be down at that border, understanding what is going on, talking to the law enforcement, talking to the men and women, talking to the sheriffs, talking to the ranchers, and understanding the impact that that much illegal immigration per month is having on those communities down there.
Vice President Kamala Harris was asked to comment on the spiraling border crisis taking place across the southern United States this week; blaming the total breakdown of law and order on “extreme climate.”
“We are looking at extensive storm damage because of extreme climate, we’re looking at drought in an area in a region where agriculture is one of the most traditionally important basis for their economy, we’re looking at what’s happening in terms of food scarcity as a result of that and in fact, incredible food insecurity, which we used to call hunger food insecurity,” she said.
“And we are looking at, therefore, a number of issues that also relate to poverty, extreme poverty. And also there’s violence obviously coming out of those regions,” she said. “When you look at the root causes, we’re also looking at issues of corruption. Again, we’re looking at the issue of climate resiliency and then the concern about a lack of economic opportunity.”
“The U.S. is seeing a dramatic surge in migration at the border, with 172,000 migrants encountered in March alone — and thousands more estimated to have evaded Border Patrol. The spike in unaccompanied children and migrant families in particular has overwhelmed facilities and led the Biden administration to rapidly opening facilities to house them,” reports Fox News.
“Republicans have pointed to the Biden administration’s rollback of the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), narrowing of interior enforcement and the decision not to apply Title 42 public health protections to unaccompanied children as reasons for the surge,” adds Fox.
Read the full report here.
‘ILLEGAL ALIEN’ CANCELED: White House Orders ICE, CBP to Use Term ‘Noncitizen or Migrant’
The White House moved Monday to purge the term “illegal alien” from the Customs and Border Protection Agency and ICE; demanding federal agents use the words “noncitizen” or “migrant” when referring to those crossing into the United States from Mexico.
“The policy of my Administration is to protect national and border security, address the humanitarian challenges at the southern border, and ensure public health and safety,” Biden said in an executive order.
SCOOP: ICE, CBP to stop using ‘illegal alien’ and ‘assimilation’ under new Biden administration order https://t.co/FUM2po4LRG
— Maria Sacchetti (@mariasacchetti) April 19, 2021
“We must also adhere to due process of law as we safeguard the dignity and well-being of all families and communities. My Administration will reset the policies and practices for enforcing civil immigration laws to align enforcement with these values and priorities,” he continued.
The Biden admin ordered ICE and CBP to stop using dehumanizing terms like "illegal alien" when referring to immigrants, reports @washingtonpost.
Under the order:
▪️ "illegal" is now "undocumented"
▪️ "alien" is now "noncitizen"/"migrant"
▪️ "assimilation" is now "integration" pic.twitter.com/UOOUTPll0V— AJ+ (@ajplus) April 19, 2021
“We’re going to increase the number [of refugees],” he told reporters. “The problem was that the refugee part was working on the crisis that ended up on the border with young people. We couldn’t do two things at once. But now we are going to increase the number.”
Read the full report at Fox News.
‘KIDS IN CONTAINERS?’ Press Sec Says Only a ‘Couple of Options’ for Unaccompanied Minors at the Border
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki defended the Biden administration’s decision to re-open facilities for children crossing the US border without their parents Wednesday; saying the policies are vastly different than the Trump administration’s programs.
“You said it’s not ‘Kids in Cages.’ We’ve seen some photos now of containers. Is it ‘Kids in Containers’ instead of ‘Kids in Cages’?” asked reporter Peter Doocy.
“We have a number of unaccompanied children who are coming into the country without their families. What we’re not doing is ripping them from the arms of their parents at the border. We’re not doing that,” said Psaki.
“We can send them back, we can transfer them, or we can put them with families and sponsors without any vetting. We’ve chosen the middle option,” she added.
.@PDoocy: "Is it kids in containers instead of kids in cages?"@PressSec: "What we are not doing, what the last administration did, was separate those kids, rip them from the arms of their parents at the border. We are not doing that." pic.twitter.com/LkJdkRE2xh
— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) February 24, 2021
Watch Psaki’s comments above.