The White House has reacted to comments made by President Joe Biden in which he characterized the crisis at our southern border as a crisis by gently reassuring the American people that the crisis at the border is still not, in fact, a crisis after all.
This is, of course, because the White House’s official position on the border crisis is that whatever is going on with all those refugee children packed like sardines into COVID-non-compliant detention centers, it is definitely not a crisis.
Over the weekend, Biden seemingly went off script, using the C-word — I mean “crisis” — while making comments on his broken promise to cap the number of refugees allowed into the country in 2021 and 2022.
Although he had previously said he would raise his predecessor President Donald Trump’s limit of 15,000 refugees to 62,500 for the 2021 fiscal year — which ends in October –and 125,000 for the 2022 fiscal year, Biden seemed to briefly commit to returning to the cap of 15,000 before acquiescing to outrage from the likes of the Squad, promising to raise the numbers next month.
“We’re gonna increase the numbers. The problem was that the refugee part was working on the crisis that ended up on the border with young people and we couldn’t do two things at once. And now we’re going to increase the numbers,” Biden told reporters of this about-face on Saturday, according to CNN.
Of course, this marks the first time a member of the administration has referred to the “not-a-crisis” as a “crisis” and it was POTUS himself. His handlers scrambled to cover his tracks.
In a carefully crafted spin provided to the noble guardians of truth over at CNN, the Biden White House firmly insisted this “crisis” wasn’t the “crisis” that Biden’s policies have created, which is definitely not a crisis.
Rather, Biden really meant the crises in Northern Triangle countries that drive these refugees to our door, where they are greeted with a federal response that has definitely not created a crisis.
The president was “was referring to the crisis in Central America — the dire circumstances so many are fleeing from. He was not referring to the Federal Government’s response,” an unnamed White House official told CNN.
“The Federal Government’s response and process has been laser focused on finding solutions that allow us to address these root causes, expand capacity space and quickly transfer children to relatives. We remain focused on getting children out of CBP facilities, into proper facilities, and ultimately united with relatives or sponsors who are safe and have been vetted.”
On Monday afternoon, White House press secretary Jen Psaki also teased out an affirmation of the administration’s position out of the president’s problematic use of the word “crisis” during a briefing.
“The President does not feel that children coming to our border seeking refuge from violence, economic hardships, and other dire circumstances is a crisis. He does feel that the crisis in Central America — the dire circumstances that many are fleeing from — that that is a situation we need to spend our time or effort on and we need to address it if we’re going to prevent more of an influx of migrants from coming in years to come,” she said.
Give me a break.
This is about as believable as the White House’s insistence that it’s not a crisis.
A position, by the way, that couldn’t possibly be more offensive to everyone involved, the American people, law enforcement and the migrants themselves.
The number of migrants encountered by law enforcement has skyrocketed since Biden took office; the figure was over 100,000 in February and 172,000 in March, according to CNN.
Groups brought across by smugglers are, in some cases, leaving trails of litter as they cross illegally that pose both safety and environmental concerns for communities on the border.
The conditions for unaccompanied minors in facilities where they are housed been consistently reported as horrific and convicted sex offenders are being caught trying to re-enter the country.
COVID-positive migrants aren’t being quarantined from those who test negative, and are being released into the U.S. mainland.
Of course, the situation is a crisis, and the White House is refusing to admit this because if they did, they would have to take the blame for what is so obviously a crisis of the administration’s own making.
But what does it say that they can’t even seem to get Biden on the same page?
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This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
