Psaki Makes Claim That ‘Influx Of Migrants’ Began Under Trump, ‘Exacerbated’ By ‘Destructive And Chaotic Policies’

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki moved to blame former President Donald Trump, again, for the unabated crisis at the US-Mexico border, telling reporters that the influx of migrants seeking to enter the country began under the previous Republican administration.

Psaki said the “destructive and chaotic policies” of former President Trump on immigration was to blame for the “influx of migrants at the border” — exacerbating the situation which Joe Biden inherited. 

“I wanted to provide a brief update on the situation on our Southern border; after four years of an immigration system rooted in destructive and chaotic policies, President Biden is taking the challenge head-on and is building a fair, orderly and humane immigration system. That’s our objective,” the press secretary said as she began her Tuesday briefing.

Almost instantly, she went on to lash at the former Republican administration and shifted the blame to the leadership of President Trump — whose policies she claimed, “exacerbated” the situation. 

“After coming into office, our administration immediately jumped into action to address the influx of migrants at the border, something that began during and was exacerbated by the Trump administration. And we wanted to provide a couple of pieces of data you may have seen, but they’ve come out since the last time we had a briefing in here,” Psaki said.

“At the end of March, there were more than 5,000 children in Customs and Border Protection (CBP) patrol stations,” she claimed. 

“Today, that number is approximately 600. The amount of time children spend in CBP facilities is down by 75%, from 131 hours at the end of March to under 30 hours now. And just yesterday, the Department of Homeland Security announced that it will begin the process of reuniting a number of families who were separated by the policies of the previous administration.”

Some journalists took to social media to call out Psaki’s rhetoric.

“White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki began today’s briefing with a whopper of lie in which she blamed the surge of illegal immigrants after President Biden took office …. Donald Trump,” Curtis Houck, managing editor @NewsBusters wrote.

The Daily Wire’s Chrissy Clark, who recently visited the US-Mexico border also wrote of a different scenario currently happening at the southern border — in contrast to Psaki’s claims.

“In March, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) encountered more than 172,000 migrants attempting to come into the United States, which is the largest increase in illegal crossings in two decades,” Clark said.

“Border Patrol agents we spoke with at length told The Daily Wire that the surge in migration began on January 20 — the day President Joe Biden was inaugurated.”

The Washington Post earlier reported that an estimated 5,000 individuals try to breach the US-Mexico border everyday with 450-500 of those are unaccompanied minors. The publication wrote that there are also “about 15,500 children” in Border Patrol custody.

Separately, The Wall Street Journal reported that the CBP encountered nearly 200,000 migrants at the US’ southern border in March alone. 

“That’s up from 103,731 in March 2019 and 50,347 in March 2018,” the publication said, noting that the numbers also included “nearly 19,000” unaccompanied children — which is more than four times the number of kids apprehended in March 2020.

The report also said the surge is way bigger than the 9,380 seen in March 2019 and the 5,244 in March 2018 both under President Trump.

“CBP also reported 53,623 encounters with family units last month, a 173% increase over February and the most since the peak of the 2019 border crisis.”

In March, Psaki already pointed fingers at the Trump administration saying that the previous government left the Biden government an “unworkable system” despite the former administration averting such an unprecedented influx of migrants by earlier implementing tough measures at the border which President Biden later on reversed.

“We recognize this is a big problem,” Psaki told reporters in a briefing. “The last administration left us a dismantled and unworkable system and, like any other problem, we are going to do all we can to solve it,” Psaki said then.

Democrats have also sought to downplay the border situation — with the administration refusing to call it a “crisis” for so long, while top Democrats such as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi maintains that despite the “historic” number of border crossers, the southern border crisis is “under control.”

Meanwhile, former Acting ICE Director Tom Homan said in February that the Democratic administration under President Biden “designed” the border crisis.

“That’s why there’s a surge at the border, but they want this. This is designed to be this way,” Homan said then.

“They’re bringing millions of people into this country who will now be counted on the census because Joe Biden overturned that, which leads to seats in the House [and] Electoral College in elections. This is power over public safety, the quest for power over protecting American citizens.”

Steeve Strange

Steeve is the CEO & Co-Founder of The Scoop.