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The White House is hitting back at claims from the governor of Texas that Joe Biden’s “open border policies” are to blame for a surge of unaccompanied children at the US-Mexico boundary, with press secretary Jen Psaki arguing that’s “absolutely incorrect” during a Thursday press briefing.
“That is absolutely incorrect,” she said during a testy exchange with Fox News’ Peter Doocy. “The border is not open. The vast majority of individuals apprehended or encountered at the border continue to be denied entry and are returned.”
The Border Patrol says it apprehended nearly 700 unaccompanied minors on Wednesday, well above its 450-child daily average. Ms Psaki said the administration’s focus was treating them humanely even as others are told to go home.
“The majority of people who come to our border will be turned away,” she said. “We also recognize that because the president has made a decision that the way to humanely approach immigration is to allow for unaccompanied minors to come and be treated with humanity and be in a safe place while we’re trying to get them into homes and sponsored, that some more may have come to our border.”
On Tuesday, Texas governor Greg Abbott slammed the Biden administration’s border agenda and blamed it for a surge in arrivals.
“This crisis is a result of President Biden’s open border policies,” he said. “It invites illegal immigration and is creating a humanitarian crisis in Texas right now that will grow increasingly worse by the day.”
The Biden administration has rolled back a number of Donald Trump’s most hard-line immigration policies— ending the Muslim travel ban and systemic family separation, halting construction on the wall—as well as proposing legislation that would give undocumented people a full path to citizenship.
Mr Biden has ordered a review, rather than a repeal, of the Migrant Protection Protocols, which effectively sealed the border to asylum seekers, making nearly 65,000 wait in Mexico for their court hearings. The administration hasn’t added new people to the protocols, but also hasn’t offered a plan for addressing those already under the policy.
It has also left in place the so-called “Title 42” order, which former president Trump issued to stop the spread of coronavirus, and gives broad latitude to US officials to deport almost everyone crossing illegally.
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