White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki admitted President Joe Biden’s decision to reverse former President Donald Trump’s immigration policies was bringing more unaccompanied minors to the country.
Psaki said Biden’s message was for unaccompanied children to “come and be treated with humanity” at the border.
“Some more may have come to our border and there have been a large flow of children cross the border,” she said. “We recognize that, but we made a policy decision because we felt it was the humane approach.”
Psaki said the “vast vast majority” of migrants were turned away at the border, but the path for unaccompanied children remained.
Over 3,700 migrant children are currently in border patrol detention facilities while they wait until officials can transfer them to Health and Human Services facilities before they are released to sponsors within the United States.
“The president is very focused and very in the weeds of the operational details here,” she said.
Psaki again refused to call the flood of children at the border a crisis.
“Our focus here is on getting to the root of the issues and taking actions, and we don’t feel the need to play games with what it’s called,” she said.
She instead described the events at the border as a “vital human challenge.”
Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador described Biden as the “migrant president” after his virtual meeting with the president on March 1.
“They see him as the migrant president, and so many feel they’re going to reach the United States,” he said according to Reuters.
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