The number of unaccompanied children arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border is growing — and, with it, anxiety in the Biden administration.
Newer concerns have mixed with longstanding ones to create a situation at the border that could become untenable.
Today, in the second part of our series on what we’re learning about the Biden administration, we look at the president’s response to the growing number of minors at the border.
Guest: Zolan Kanno-Youngs, a homeland security correspondent based in Washington for The New York Times.
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For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.
This is an unofficial transcript meant for reference. Accuracy is not guaranteed.
From New York Times. Unworkable borrow this today today, part two
or look at what one learning about the Biden presidency I spoke with. My colleague zone can oh yes
about binds response to the growing number of children showing up at the
you ask Lexical board its Monday March eight.
So one can you describe what's happening,
right now at the U S, Mexico border. What you're, seeing right now at the border is unaccompanied children fleeing poverty person.
Russian crossing the border alone and going to the ports to
wonder to border agents an increasingly large numbers,
when you say increasingly large numbers. How many people are we talking about well Michael Justice, past JANET
Mary, a border patrol agents caught nearly six thousand unaccompanied children crossing the border. That's nearly double compared to the number of crossings that were recorded in January of twenty twenty, so this steady increase of unaccompanied children really is spreading.
Society throughout the government and is providing the bad administration with its source, the real challenge at the border and coming only what roughly forty days after he came into office right. So not a lot of time to prepare for this not allotted time. But you know, officials within the government would say that they need to respond
now, these crossings are expected to continue. Do we know why there is such a meaningful increase in crossings by unaccompanied minors, so there's a long standing drivers of migration poverty per
the commission gang violence. Now you out, on top of that, what happened this past year, we had to hurricanes in the fall that cut off,
supply and battered the autonomy, and you add that so the pandemic. That's another factor that has really exacerbated some of the issues that we discussed and then finally I mean I was actually just at the border and some of the.
please I spoke to who had a recently arrive, did so
That another reason is the transition to a new administration they perceived president. By
and who campaigned on a more compassionate approach to the border than his predecessor
as potentially being more lenient at the boy. So some of the factors behind this are needed.
Are older and quite long standing, but they have combined to create what looks like, perhaps a new crisis at the border. That's what government officials are raising a flag about right now that we could be heading in the same direction that previous administrations also dealt with going back to twenty forty with present Barack Obama and
We also have a similar issue with present Donald Trump, how he saw in order to put what Biden is doing
may be doing in a future into some context. How me
Your stand, those two previous moments at the
what are these surges in unaccompanied minors and how President Obama and Trump responded to them and, let's start with President Obama in twenty fourteen, ok
so the number of unaccompanied children that were crossing the border and the Obama administration, a coffee ministries and flat foot it. A flood of children has become a crisis for the government
scrambles for solution. Eventually, you would see the Obama administration were spawn which actually present bottom.
The face Joe Biden has in Guatemala today meeting was
central american leaders he's hoping to get their help in stopping the surge of unaccompanied minors,
nurse arriving in the? U S of trying to invest in Central America,
invest around seven hundred and fifty million dollars to get up those root causes. You also saw them create a programme in
The central american region where children could apply for protection was mostly. However, you also saw
straighten that really wanted to show that they could control the border. Tear the grand opening of a New South Texas immigrant detention facility,
what they did in order to do, that was actually expand. Their detention capacity, the largest immigration detention centre in the country, has just opened up fifty echo facility just a constructive new facilities.
Detention facilities, how's, my brain. The facility will in prison mostly women and children from Central America, and that combined with really and increasing deportations under the Obama administration, prompted widespread backlash
to the Obama administration has. It was using two strategies that were somewhat at odds in an effort to control the board. One.
to make investments in these countries where people are migrating from to try to stem the problems that triggered the migrations. But the second part of our strategy is harder edged and it involves detention that right and that's where you saw a lot of that credit
I mean by large children are supposed to be moved out of these border patrol facilities within a couple of days are supposed to be kept and sanitary and safe. Invite
and the administration got criticized for holding kids too long in some of those detention facilities.
and was that criticism justified? Yes, I mean you had
migrant children that were being held beyond the sun
to our mandate that they're supposed to be held, but at the same time are you would see
even more of a strategy of deterrence and what many would call cruelty in the next administration.
so tell us about how the travel administration handles a surge of unaccompanied minors at the border under its watch? Well, look but rather ministrations approach. The border was centred on deterrents immigration is the fault and all of the problems that were having
Courage in families from coming to the border right, the United States will not be a migrant camp and it will not be a refugee. Holding facility will be the best way that I can sum rise. His approach is that actually, whose school,
The system from both sides, women so on the front end the mexican side of the border of the trouble masturbation actually institute policies that limited the number of asylum seekers that could go to the ports and asked for protection
So he makes it more difficult for them to get em, but once they are in once, you haven't unaccompanied child brought to a border facility and then subsequently brought to a shelter manage by health. In doing so
says he actually made it also more difficult for them to be released on the back and of the system in order for an unaccompanied child too.
Released. You would need a relative to come for and be their sponsor, but the Trump Administration implemented policies that many would say actually discouraged those relatives from coming forward. That includes requiring fingerprints.
increased background checks for everyone. In that immigrant household back, combined with
general rhetoric around increase deportations in English, fear of deportations. So that's what I mean when I say he squeezed the system from both sides. He made it more difficult for these unaccompanied children to get out of these facilities and the result is these children and upstart, whose approach was seen as the most effective in confronting these two surges of unaccompanied minors, Obama's or traps. Well, look there's, no question. If your measure success is keeping asylum seekers out of the country, keeping them south of the border, preventing them from crossing into the United States. There is no question that trumpeted that he got to the point where he effectively sealed the border to read asylum seekers and he went so far as to actually turn
to a new policy in March of last year, a public health emergency rule rooted in the corona virus pandemic was introduced. Now what this did is it empowered agents and officers along the border to essentially rapid?
turn away the legal terms, expel, migrants who cross the border into the United States, and this included children who crossed the border alone. Now the administration said at the time that this was necessary to prevent the corona virus. From
riding in facilities, but there was a cost for one hour. Reporting showed that even children that were from Central America Times worked expelled to their home country but were instead expelled to Mexico,
sending their families into a scramble to search for them therein
so go now. In some places they were forced to be in these squalid areas that were subjected to violence and kidnappings from the cartel, so there were certainly cost to this
At the same time, this rule allowed shrunk to achieve one of his goals that he had long wanted seal
the United States to those seeking protection in the United States, so this is the tricky situation Biden is walking into as present at this covert rule is in place from Trump
and now he is experiencing a significant surge of unaccompanied minors at the border. Yes,
that's right and remember when then press
like Biden was campaigning, he did express regret with
where the Obama administration handled certain facets of immigration are very proud to serve rock and his bonds, great honors. In my life, I thought it was great,
isn't it, but even he acknowledges we can't go back to what it was. He did say there were mistakes that were made, and so I have a programme that is significantly different and bills upon where we left off and tries to undo the damage that tromp has done number one.
number two. I can't pay them home. At the same time, he was openly criticising the trumpet minute,
patients approach to the border described. It is cool. He said,
but he would restore
asylum for those families, but you also have the country still facing a pandemic so
Where would President Biden policies at the border land
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we'll independent analysis suit zone, given how
residents, Obama and Trump dealt with unaccompanied minors
When this new surge arrives over the past few weeks and Biden faces more or less a similar challenge, what is his response? So, almost immediately coming into office, you see top administration
special sang luck. We are going to approach the border with more from passion. We're gonna make good on our campaigns launch a bat.
the same time, they are also saying: look. We cannot just foot the switch here. You have them actually, discouraging migrants very publicly and interviews, saying do not make this journey. North, that's quite contradictory, be compassionate but by
the border is closed and don't even try to cross it will. Let me explain how is working on the ground, so this pandemic emergency room that Trump had introduced a year before the body administration is key.
It implies, which allows border agents to rapidly the poor migrants who cross the border. But the difference here with the binding
Illustration is very actually not going to apply it to children who cross the border. Interesting, though not doing that now, and that is what they would say as their evidence of already a more compassionate human
an approach, the fact that you're not laughingly turning away a child who would cross the southwest border alone, so
innovation is not expelling these jobs, not forcing them back to their home countries. So what is it doing with these unaccompanied minors? So, Michael as far as the process for the unaccompanied minors, it's actually some more process that we saw
in previous demonstrations that child once they cross the border. They are too
by a border agent to a border facility. They are only supposed to be there for seventy two hours. Those facilities were designed for adults, not
children and then from the border facility, we're supposed to be taken to a shelter managed by the Department of Health and Human services until the government can locate their sponsor, but here's the issue up until last Friday. Those shelters managed by helping human services were actually reduce capacity by almost forty percent. That's because of the pandemic right. You have these shelters reduced
Space so that you can spread people out in the midst of a pandemic stone. What has happened is is created this bottleneck, if you don't have enough space in the shelters that are supposed to hold
following that then means that those children,
going to be in the facilities where they're not supposed to be along the border for along
period of time and when I talk to her
those on the ground. There
raising alarm about this, and you
Saw the body administration acknowledged this just this past Friday, when they directed those shelters for children to go back to the capacity that they had before the pandemic
to create more space, but it really is starting to look like a similar challenge that we saw not only under the Trump administration but also under the Obama administration. So to recap,
I intend to create a more humane approach to what to do. It
company minors is just bumping up against all kinds of challenges that are making it difficult to not. We create the same problems of Trump and Obama, and it also risk him now being accused of not making good on his campaign pledge of this more compassionate and humane approach to the border. We are dedicated to achieving and quite frankly, working around the clock to replace the cruelty of the past administration with an orderly, humane and safe immigration process. You know just earlier this week in front of heard it from one of his top administration officials. It is hard and it will take time the Homeland Security Secretary said. We need individuals to wait and I will say that they will wait with a goal in mind for not saying don't call
for saying, don't come now, and that is our ability to rebuild as quickly as possible a system. So that they don't have to take the dangerous journey and weaken enables them to access humanitarian relief from their countries of origin, and he said that they need
time to unwind some of the restrictions in place at the border. They need time to build up the kind of shelters that we describe. That would housed children across the border alone. So for them it's trying to work quickly towards
ass. What has really become one of their early, immediate challenges of this administration
one that involves actual lives at the border zone. On Friday we talk to our colleague, David Sakharov, one of your fellow way possible
Ferris about a different case study into how present Biden is governing in these early days and involve difficult.
you're, making around Saudi Arabia and its crown prince and
way, Biden responded. There is somewhat at odds with the way he talked during the campaign
The subject of immigration seems different. It seems like by
is in many ways doing what he said he would do, and yet he is finding its still very, very complicated to try to keep his word so.
and your mind, what are we learning about Biden from his approach to this increase?
of unaccompanied minors at the border. So what I think we're learning about President Biden and really his administration is that, yes, he made these ambitious promises during his campaign. He said he was going to be committed to restoring a process
were these asylum seekers, including unaccompanied children and you're, seeing him go forward with it, despite criticism from those some on the left who say is moving to slow, despite the criticism from those on the right who say that you shouldn't be processing any asylum seekers into the United States in the middle of a pandemic. But what we know here is that, regardless of how ambition?
his goals are Michael, is that he has before him a really difficult logistical challenge here. In order to make good on this crucial piece of his immigration agenda, he is going to need to build up capacity at the border. The clock is ticking for
right now, so will he be able to
on wind, his predecessors, immigration restrictions, wow building, a system that can process these migrants at a quick enough pace that fully the question going forward. I guess perhaps my question was flawed. It feels like what were learning is the depth of the complex,
of this problem, rather than exactly how Joe Biden is gonna be responding to it. That may take longer to understand absolutely worked a view,
were present Biden. It is not
very hard to criticise the Trump administrations approach for the border. It is very hard to actually approach this challenge yourself and create a system where you can actually process these migrants out of fast enough rate zone. Thank you very much appreciate. Thank you.
On Friday afternoon, former president Trump criticized the binding administration for its handling
The situation at the border, calling it could told
we add of control that prompted a swift response from White House press secretary.
Jen Saki untimely President Trump, yes
We don't take our advice or council from former President Trump on immigration policy, which was not only inhumane but ineffective over
last four years, we're in a charter on path forward, and that includes treating
and with humanity and respect and
during their safe when they cross our borders
Audrey back our goals. Aren't you thought of
Does we once thought because things are coming back and if there's anything, we ve learned its that there's
No time like the present at U S bank, we take that.
to understand you to help get you to where you really want to be by getting to the root of any financial obstacle.
so you can move forward because side by side, there's no telling
how far you ll go? U S, bank we'll get there together
equal housing, Lindore member after I see
here's, what else you need? Ten thirty mistress, ass yours ass now, Mr Shimmer, Mr Shimmer of no wishing to change about the user, fifty
Forty nine go as amended is passed over to make the EU a Senate. Past present finds one point: nine trillion dollar stimulus package, the largest anti poverty effort in a generation, and us
being attempt to stabilize the economy a year into the pandemic. The package includes direct one time payments of up to fourteen hundred
Others for hundreds of millions of Americans jobless aid of three hundred dollars a week to the summer and funding for vaccine distribution in school. We openings despite pause, showing widespread by partisans,
support for the package, not a single Republican, senator supported draft mood good day to day in a speech from the White House Biden said that the bill would bring desperately needed help to the country. You know we took office. Forty five days ago, I promised american people help was on the way.
Today I can say we ve taken one more giant step forward in delivering on that promise. Help us on the way the bill now we're terms too
house of representatives which is expected to pass it tomorrow.
And on Sunday night, the head of the New York State Senate called on governance.
and your Cuomo to resign over
The growing number of former eight who have accused him
sexual harassment. The times reports that the demand from a fellow Democrat
Andrea, Stuart causes could be a potential turning point for common. So far, five women have accused Cuomo of inappropriate conduct pork,
homo, has insisted that he will not resign saying he was only adopted by the people of New York, not the states, politicians. Tidies episode was produced by only Spiegel asked the charter baby Luke Vanderpool an aircraft. It was edited by LISA
CIAO, an engineered by Daniel POW, that's for the daily unworkable bar, see you tomorrow.
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Transcript generated on 2021-03-24.