Cuccinelli on border crisis: Migrants showing up to border in president’s t-shirts
Heritage Foundation visiting fellow Ken Cuccinelli weighs in on migrants showing up to the border in president’s t-shirts and reported child-abuse in migrant facility in Texas.
After reports of record-breaking migrant border apprehensions last month,, Washington Post fact-checker Glenn Kessler said Thursday the Biden White House could no longer say the surge was seasonal.
"Well, I guess the Biden White House line that this is the usual annual migration surge at the border is no longer operative," Kessler tweeted.
The number of migrants in March was the highest in 15 years, including a record total of nearly 19,000 unaccompanied teenagers and children.
Nearly 750 unaccompanied minors crossed the border Wednesday, meaning there are now more than 20,000 children being sheltered by the Department of Homeland Security.
Biden, in response to a flattering question at his March 25 press conference that illegal immigrants were seeking to enter the U.S. because he was perceived as a "moral, decent man," said "nothing" had changed with regard to migrant numbers.
"It happens every single, solitary year: There is a significant increase in the number of people coming to the border in the winter months of January, February, March. That happens every year," Biden said.
Left-leaning fact-checking site PolitiFact rated Biden's claim at the time "Mostly False."
Kessler's own newspaper tried to back Biden up with an analysis piece last month that initially claimed there was "no migrant surge" and ignored the record number of unaccompanied minors at the border. The piece was eventually updated but still said the migrant surge was part of a "predictable pattern" and couldn't necessarily be traced to Biden's more liberal immigration policies.
VP HARRS VISITS CHICAGO BAKERY EVEN AS BORDER CRISIS ESCALATES
Among Biden's changes have been to create a carve-out specifically for minors in its Title 42 authority to expel migrants at the border.
Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents have shared heartbreaking videos in recent weeks of children making the dangerous journey to the border. One that went viral this week showed a young boy crying to an agent after being left alone by his migrant group in the desert. Last week, a video showed a 5-year-old and a 3-year-old being dropped over a border barrier by smugglers at the New Mexico border.
CBP has projected that 184,000 unaccompanied minors will cross the U.S. border in fiscal year 2021. Two sources familiar with internal data confirmed the estimate to Fox News, with one agent saying: "We've never seen anything like this before.
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The same day Kessler knocked the Biden White House for employing that talking point, far-left Vox journalist Aaron Rupar attacked Republicans for fixating on the border crisis.
Fox News' Morgan Phillips contributed to this report.
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