Psaki takes questions about facilities for migrant children at the U.S.-Mexico border
During a briefing on Wednesday, White House press secretary Jen Psaki answered questions about the Biden administration’s use of facilities to hold migrant children who cross the U.S.-Mexico border.
Video Transcript
- Thank you, Jen. We spoke yesterday about immigration and this facility, HHS facility in Carrizo Springs, Texas for migrant children. And you said it is not kids in cages. We've seen some photos now of containers. Is there a better description? Is it kids in containers instead of kids in cages? What is the White House's description of this facility?
JEN PSAKI: Well, let me give a broader description of what's happening here. We have a number of unaccompanied minors, children who are coming into the country without their families. What we are not doing, what the last administration did was separate those kids, rip them from the arms of their parents at the border. We are not doing that. That is immoral, and that is not the approach of this administration.
These kids, we have a couple of options. We can send them back home and do a dangerous journey back. We are not doing that, either. That is also putting them at risk. We can quickly transfer them from CBP to these HHS-run facilities. That's one option. Or we can put them with families and sponsors without any vetting. There were some problems that that process ran into, as well.
We've chosen the middle option. And these HHS facilities-- this is one of them you're referring to-- we had to expand and open additional facilities because there was not enough space in the existing facilities, and-- if we were to abide by COVID protocols. That's the process and the step. This facility in Texas, which has been reopened, has been revamped, has been-- there are teachers, there is medical facilities. And our objective is to move them-- move these kids quickly from there to vetted sponsored families and to places where they can safely be. This is a difficult situation. It's a difficult choice. That's the choice we've made.
- So just one step back from that, we've been talking to people down at the border who say that, right now, DHS and the Border Patrol are using the same kind of facilities now that they did during the Trump administration, and that there's a facility right now, it's in Donna, Texas instead of McAllen, Texas, but it's tents, and chain link fence around it. And so--
JEN PSAKI: A CBP facility before they're transferred to the HHS facility? Is that what you're referring to?
- Yes. And that the issue would be that, just in the last couple of days, they had hundreds of kids that they were holding for over 72 hours, which is the legal limit to keep somebody in a temporary facility. So I'm just curious why this is happening.
JEN PSAKI: Well, let's be clear, though, because I know you want to be clear with the public about the differences. The CBP facilities, which you're right, the objective is to move kids, unaccompanied minors as quickly as possible, under 72 hours, to these HHS-sponsored facilities, which is the one where we've been referring to in Texas. They are two different things.
There has been some-- there were some delays, last week because of weather, and because some of these facilities to safely move these kids to did not have power and were not in a place where they could-- they had the capacity to take in these kids and do it safely. That is not our objective. That is not our goal. So some, unfortunately, did say four days, five days, or longer. But the objective is to move them as quickly as possible to the HHS-sponsored facilities.
