President Joe Biden addressed his administration’s controversial choice to reopen a Texas facility designed to carry unaccompanied migrant minors throughout a Univision interview on Friday.
The facility, positioned in Carrizo Springs, was opened by the Trump administration to accommodate 700 youngsters aged 13 to 17 and closed solely a month later in the summertime of 2019.
Biden’s group has mentioned that its reopening is a temporary measure designed to deal with elevated numbers of migrant youngsters crossing the U.S. and Mexico border, in addition to COVID-19 closing different amenities for minors.
“Right now there’s thousands of unaccompanied children coming across the border,” Biden informed Univision’s Ilia Calderon. “We’ve been able to place a significant number of them in licensed facilities throughout the country … In Texas, they opened up one … used in the last administration. Our hope and expectation is that won’t stay open very long and that we’ll be able to provide for every kid who comes across the border safely to be housed in a facility that’s licensed.”
First woman Jill Biden, who was additionally current in the course of the interview, echoed her husband’s remarks and mentioned that the Biden administration’s priorities had been to accommodate migrant youngsters, supply them psychological well being and authorized companies and reunite them with relations in a “humane way.”
White House press secretary Jen Psaki conveyed an identical message throughout a Thursday look on “The View.” Psaki defended the reopening, arguing that quickly housing unaccompanied youngsters in a revamped facility was considerably totally different from household separation on the border, which was a typical observe in the course of the Trump period.
Nevertheless, the choice has garnered criticism from each Democrats and Republicans, with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortz (D-N.Y.) calling it unacceptable “no matter the administration or party,” and arguing that the whole U.S. immigration system is “built on a carceral framework.”
Former Trump senior coverage adviser Stephen Miller, in the meantime, argued that Biden’s immigration insurance policies had been “cruel” throughout a Fox News look on Wednesday, even though he was a serious proponent of household separation throughout his time within the White House.
Watch the total interview under.
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