Migrant surge has overwhelmed authorities at the US southern border
WASHINGTON (SBG) — The White House has announced several high ranking officials are traveling to Mexico and Guatemala to meet with those governments in hopes of better managing the mass migration situation that has overwhelmed authorities at the United States' southern border.
New pictures, provided by Congressman Henry Cuellar’s office, show what it's like inside crowded migrant holding facilities in Texas as the Biden administration is still denying media access.
"These photos show what we’ve long been saying, which is that these border patrol facilities are not places made for children. They are not places we want children to be staying for an extended period of time. Our alternative is to send children back on this treacherous journey," said White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki.
In a letter to President Joe Biden, Texas Sen. John Cornyn made a bipartisan plea with Arizona Democrat Sen. Kyrsten Sinema for "aggressive steps," requesting more facilities and resources & streamlining the asylum process, citing a massive backlog.
"We've seen this movie before, but never before has it been that there’s no plan to deal with it. What I’m trying to do is come up with the bipartisan plan to deal with this, if they’re willing to talk to us," Cornyn explained.
Biden says he’s trying to both handle and slow the surge.
"We're in the process of doing it now, including making sure that we re-establish what existed before, which is, they can stay in place from their home country," Biden said Sunday.
But critics claim the president's policies are the problem.
The administration has undone some of former President Donald Trump’s policies, like now allowing asylum seekers to wait inside the U.S. instead of in Mexico or the first country they’ve passed through.
"We are rebuilding orderly ways in which the children can make their claims without having to take the perilous journey to the border," said Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. "And we are elevating our messaging so that the individuals do know that they cannot come to the border. The border is, is closed."
But it’s not as if Trump’s policies were fool-proof either.
There was a massive spike in May of 2019 and this current trend started in spring of last year.
Another possible change from the last administration: Democrats believe they’re closer to the 60 votes needed in the Senate to pass the law that would grant a pathway to citizenship for so-called DREAMers, those already in the country, brought here as children.
