Joe Biden doesn't mind calling the climate a crisis -- but when it comes to thousands of trafficked kids, separated from their parents in a border mess of epic proportions, it's a "challenge." Or is it? Even White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki couldn't help slipping up Thursday and labeling the situation what it truly is. "... You said, 'crisis on the border,'" one reporter pointed out. Annoyed, Psaki corrected herself. "Challenges on the border," she insisted. "So that doesn't reflect any change in the administration's view of things?" the reporter asked. "Nope," Psaki fired back.
The White House may not have changed its messaging on the border dilemma, but members of the media certainly have. Frustrated by the information blackout, they're starting to ask the hard questions. Even Biden's own party isn't giving the president a pass on his cover-up. Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), a far-Left Democrat, told MSNBC that the administration's handling of the situation is "morally unacceptable." "I just read a report that some of the children don't have food, they aren't being able to shower, they're being held for more than 72 hours without going to Office of Refugee Resettlement, they aren't being given access to lawyers. These are human rights violations."
Incredibly, the president is so determined to hide what's happening from the American people that he won't even let nonprofit lawyers into the detention buildings to talk to the children -- even though, Byron York points out, the administration is required to do so. And yet Psaki claims, "We support transparency..." The only thing that's transparent here is just how little Joe Biden actually cares about his own country. Remember, Congressman Chuck Fleishmann (R-Tenn.) pointed out on "Washington Watch" Thursday, this isn't just about immigration. It's about national security, too. "Last week, they caught three or four Yemenis coming across. They've caught Chinese." Our enemies are exploiting Biden's weakness.
Then, of course, there are the coyotes, the cartels, and drug runners, he points out, who are taking advantage of this president. "And he's clueless about it," Fleishmann fumed. "This is a crisis of monumental proportions -- a crisis that could and should have been avoided. An unnecessary crisis of humanitarian cost and national security proportions." On the House floor, members made one angry speech after another demanding action. "Young women as young as 13 years old are being lured to Texas with the promise of a job in the service industry -- and instead are being sexually abused and trafficked," Rep. Bruce Westerman (R-Ala.) argued.
And it's not just a border problem, several argued, it's a public health catastrophe. A virus super-spreader. It's incredible. The same party that's kept churches and businesses on lockdown over "COVID concerns" is cramming illegals together like sardines. And the ones who aren't being held elbow-to-elbow in government facilities are released into the public without even being tested, as Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas admitted this week. "So what the Biden administration is doing is, on the one hand, trying to solve the pandemic in the United States -- but on the other hand import more of the pandemic into our country. That is reprehensible," Texas Governor Greg Abbott (R) insisted.
In places like Midland, local officials have been completely blindsided by the administration's plan. Without any warning, busloads of minors have been driving up from the border with staff from the Federal Protective Services, DHS, and the Office of Refugee Resettlement. They started work on a detention center without even bothering to email, call, or inform local and state officials that this was happening. "Our governor's office wasn't even given a heads-up of this taking place," a frustrated Mayor Patrick Payton explained on "Washington Watch."
"Nearly every meeting we had with the different [administration] officers involved in this, it's just greeted with, 'Well, we really understand your concerns... We'll try to get back with you with an answer.' And it's just the most bizarre, frustrating, but also maddening and dangerous and precedent-setting. Because they tell us they're only going to be here for a moment, [but] I just got a picture sent from the facility today. They've already put up poles, and they're getting ready to put up an eight to 10-foot security fence with a blackout shade around it..." How is this "temporary," Payton wondered. "I'm not sure you put up a full-blown privacy fence for a 90-day contract," he shook his head. "Everything is just surreal and monumentally out of control."
And it will continue to be out of control until President Biden and his cronies realize that a country without borders is no country at all.
