A growing chorus of lawmakers from both sides of the aisle has called on the Biden administration Admit reporters and journalists into facilities for unaccompanied migrant children who have applied for asylum at the US-Mexico border.
The call for greater transparency among the American public and those who are talking about it comes as the US faces a growing humanitarian crisis on its southwest border, driven by the economic devastation of Central America, climate change, gang violence and political persecution, as well as a new presidential administration.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas predicts the US is on track to encounter more migrants on the southwest border than in 20 years. Amid the continued rise in the number of border crossings, President Biden said on Sunday that he will be heading to the border “at some point”.
Senator Rob Portman, a senior member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee and one of the four senators who accompanied Mayorkas to the border on Friday, told CBS News ‘Face the Nation’ that he will ‘absolutely’ push for Custom and Border to open. Protective facilities (CBP) for journalists amid calls for transparency.
“This has to be transparent,” said Portman. “I’m surprised how little my constituents know what’s going on along the border. It’s a situation that’s getting out of hand.”
Senator Chris Murphy, chair of the Senate Appropriations subcommittee on Homeland Security, also took part in the trip to the US-Mexico border. The Democratic lawmaker told NPR on Saturday that opening up access to media coverage is “something we should all urge the government to do better”.
“We want to make sure the press has access to hold the administration to account,” he said. That’s the reason I was there to hold them accountable. And they’ve seen a wave that started last year that started under the Trump administration, but it’s real. It puts their resources under pressure. ‘
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As of Saturday morning, more than 5,000 unaccompanied minors were staying at a CBP tent facility in South Texas and other stations along the border with Mexico. According to government documents, unaccompanied children spend an average of 136 hours in CBP custody, well above the legal limit of 72 hours.
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) also housed nearly 10,500 unaccompanied children in state-licensed emergency housing facilities and shelters to care for minors, according to department spokesman Mark Weber.
Another lawmaker on the trip, Senator Shelley Moore Capito, the senior Republican on the Senate Subcommittee on Homeland Security, told The Washington Post on Saturday that more than 200 border agents have been diverted to a customs and border protection processing center in El Paso. take care of children.
According to Capito, as many as 100 migrant children were held in a large room at the facility amid the coronavirus pandemic, and many are held in CBP custody for longer than the legal limit of 72 hours before being placed in HHS custody. Capito expressed concern about the length of stay in CBP facilities being exceeded, noting, “They are moving 50 per night [and] another 100 come in that night. “
The Republican senator also told The Washington Post that she endorsed the DHS secretary that reporters should be allowed inside border facilities. “I begged him to have as much transparency with us as possible … as well as with the press,” said Capito.
In an interview with ABC News on Sunday, Mayorkas mentioned both privacy and health concerns in admitting reporters into the facilities. “Let me be clear, we are in the middle of the pandemic. We are talking about an overcrowded border patrol post where we focus on operations,” Mayorkas said.
“At the same time, and I can assure you, we are working on a plan to provide access so people can see what’s going on at Border Patrol stations, “continued the DHS secretary.” I would encourage people to also go to the Department of Health and Human Services facility where the children are cared for and where they belong and where we take them. “
The delegation’s trip to the border on Friday remained closed to the press “due to privacy and COVID-19 precautions,” the DHS statement said.
A Biden official said on Thursday that DHS had made an “operational decision” in March 2020 to “discourage visitors” due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and that that rule “still applies.”
Journalists were admitted to government facilities to inspect conditions and speak to asylum seekers during past migrant peaks, including under the Trump administration in 2018 and the Obama administration in 2014.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters on Wednesday that the Biden administration had no timeline for when the public could see conditions inside the border facilities amid repeated interrogations in the White House briefing room.
“We remain committed to sharing with all of you data on the number of children crossing the border, the steps we take, the work we do to open facilities, our own bar we set for ourselves, the improvement of the and speeding up the timeline and treatment of these children, ”said Psaki, delaying further questions to the Department of Homeland Security. “And we remain committed to transparency. I don’t have an update for you on the access timeline, but it’s definitely something we support.”
In addition to media access, Biden’s government has not provided photos or video documenting the inside of overcrowded government facilities housing migrant children during COVID-19’s public emergency.
But the Biden administration, including Homeland Security officials, have repeatedly vowed to expand transparency and access to departmental activities since before the president’s inauguration. In his confirmation hearing before the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee on Jan. 19, Mayorkas pledged to “raise the level of public engagement so that we are a transparent agency – transparent not only to the public we serve, but also to the media whose responsibility it is. is partly to hold us accountable. “
Camilo Montoya-Galvez contributed to this report.