During an appearance on ABC’s “This Week,” Pelosi called the situation at the border a “humanitarian challenge” and suggested that it was the result of former President Donald Trump‘s policies.
“What the administration has inherited is a broken system at the border, and they are working to correct that in the children’s interest,” she said.
She continued to say she is “so pleased” that Biden “as a temporary measure, has sent FEMA to the border in order to help facilitate the children going from…the 72-hour issue into where they are cared for as they are transferred into family homes or homes that are safe for them to be.”
Finally, she said, “This is a transition from what was wrong before to what is right.”
Watch the video below:
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
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in a press release that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) would be sent to the border to “help receive, shelter and transport” unaccompanied migrant children who show up at the border.
As Reuters reports, children who are apprehended at the border are supposed to be transferred from Border Patrol custody after 72 hours. However, when there is limited shelter capacity, they can be placed in detention centers.
According to the outlet, the Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) refugee office reported that it had 8,800 unaccompanied migrant children in custody.
Mayorkas has said the Biden administration wants to enact an “orderly, humane, and safe immigration process.”
However, he said, “It is hard, and it will take time, but rest assured, we will get it done.”
“I think it is important to understand what we have inherited because it defines the situation as it currently stands. Entire systems are not re-built in a day or in a few weeks. To put it succinctly: the prior administration dismantled our nation’s immigration system in its entirety,” he added.
He also pointed to Trump’s decision to cut funding to foreign aid programs in Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador that were designed to curb northern migration.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) also claimed Biden “inherited a huge mess on immigration” from Trump.
However, he voiced optimism that Biden will be able to address the situation, “They are rolling up their sleeves and working on this. I think it will get better in the next few months. If it doesn’t, I will go to them and say you gotta do better, and if they don’t, I will be public.”
Trump has argued that under his tenure “our southern border was in great shape — stronger, safer, and more secure than ever before. We ended Catch-and-Release, shut down asylum fraud, and crippled the vicious smugglers, drug dealers, and human traffickers.”
“The wall, despite horrendous Democratic delays, would have easily been finished by now, and is working magnificently. Our country is being destroyed at the Southern border, a terrible thing to see!” he charged.