Pelosi Maintains That Biden Has Border “Under Control” Despite Record-Breaking Numbers
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi maintains that Democratic President Joe Biden has the southern border crisis “under control” despite record-breaking numbers of illegal immigrants and unaccompanied children seeking to enter the country and law enforcement agencies saying otherwise.
Pelosi’s spokesperson Drew Hammill said on Thursday that the Speaker is “standing by” her comments earlier in March when she said that Biden is on-top of the situation and that she was confident that the Democratic president’s approach is based on “values-based [and] humanitarian” considerations.
“The Speaker stands by her previous comments,” Hammill told Fox News when asked whether the Speaker has changed her stance since the Biden administration revealed jaw dropping figures related to the crisis at the border — showing how overwhelmed the immigration system has become under Biden.
Trending: Vote On The Controversial Poll That Asks Americans ‘Which Media Outlet Is The Most Biased?’
Border crossings in March jumped to highest level in 15 years, data shows https://t.co/gNKhVgC1vr
— Senator Ted Cruz (@SenTedCruz) April 3, 2021
Recent reports noted that nearly 19,000 unaccompanied minors entered US custody along the US-Mexico border in March alone, which was the largest monthly number ever recorded.
In total, illegal crossers seeking asylum peaked at 172,000 last month — or an increase of 100% from the already high figure seen in February — Biden’s first full month in office. Compared to the numbers seen in January 2020, during the time of former President Donald Trump, the increase was 200% according to reports.
House Speaker Pelosi, a fierce critic of the former President Trump, earlier claimed that “we’re on a good path at the border under the leadership of Joe Biden” as she falsely stated that the country was under a “very bad situation under the Trump administration.”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi: "We're on a good path at the border under the leadership of President Biden … We were in a very bad situation under the Trump administration." pic.twitter.com/l0AdoraOhq
— The Recount (@therecount) April 7, 2021
Most Democrats have earlier slammed former President Trump’s tighter border policies calling it “inhumane” and “cruel” as they praise Biden’s immigration policies — which is mostly undoing the policies of the past administration.
As part of his very first presidential actions, Biden reversed several Trump-era border policies which earlier kept the outpour of migrants — and in turn implemented more lax restrictions for asylum seekers wanting to enter the US.
Biden, for example, halted the border wall construction, exempted children from Covid-19 related expulsions. He also ended the former administration’s “Remain in Mexico” policy that required migrants to remain in Mexico while making their case to enter the country.
Instead, the new Democratic administration reinstated the Obama-era’s “catch-and-release” program — which allows the releasing families into the country’s communities. Biden’s message of “open borders” was earlier cited among the major reasons for the surge of migrants at the southern border.
Pelosi blames Trump for border crisis
Pelosi has defended Biden’s handling of the border crisis — which she called a ‘humanitarian challenge’ claiming that it will take time to make changes from the Trump-era policies, but she insisted that Biden will put the country’s immigration system on a more “humane” path.
She also went on to blame former President Trump for what she described as a ‘broken system’ that the new administration inherited.
“This is a humanitarian challenge to all of us,” Speaker Pelosi said. “What the administration has inherited is a broken system at the border and they are working to correct that.”
“This, again, is a transition from what was wrong before to what is right,” she added, in a bid to defend Biden.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi calls the surge of migrant children crossing the Southern border "a humanitarian challenge," adding that the Biden administration has inherited a "broken system at the border." https://t.co/UNXhabLMfs pic.twitter.com/on69lT7LLX
— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) March 14, 2021
But critics also blasted Pelosi’s praise for Biden saying that she’s downplaying the overcrowding and humanitarian crisis at the border to defend her fellow Democrat.
Tom Homan, former acting director of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), said Pelosi’s claims make her the “least smart congresswoman” ever.
“The bottom line is [that] children are dying,” Homan told Fox News. “Children are being abandoned … It is not under control. This is a mess.”
Even Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador blamed the immigration messaging of Biden for the crisis that continues to spiral at the southern border. He also slammed Biden for “allowing smugglers and traffickers to convince locals that the often dangerous route has been made easier to cross” — making the border crisis worse.
AMLO: "Expectations were created that with the Government of President Biden there would be a better treatment of migrants. And this has caused Central American migrants, and also from our country, wanting to cross the border thinking that it is easier to do so" pic.twitter.com/TNrZQamuWK
— José Díaz-Briseño (@diazbriseno) March 23, 2021
Former President Trump already warned about human-trafficking “coyotes” during a presidential campaign debate with now President Biden.
“A lot of these kids come out without the parents, they come over through cartels and through coyotes and through gangs,” Trump said then.
