Manchin says border situation is a 'crisis' as White House refuses to use word

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Sen. Joe Manchin dubbed the surge of new immigrants at the southern border a "crisis" on Monday as the White House refuses to use such a characterization. 

Manchin said he believes the situation at the border is a "crisis" but would wait for a briefing before passing judgment on the Biden administration’s response to the matter. Still, he seemed to say the Biden administration had sent the wrong message on immigration, or it had been taken the wrong way. 

"Whatever message was sent -- it was sure interpreted the wrong way," Manchin said in remarks to CNN. "It's a crisis -- oh, it's a crisis."

DHS CHIEF SAYS BORDER NUMBERS ON TRACK TO BE HIGHEST IN 20 YEARS 

Republicans have blamed President Biden for the surge of migrants, many of them unaccompanied minors, at the border. Biden rolled back a number of Trump-era immigration restrictions he deemed inhumane in his first weeks in office and reinstated practices like catch-and-release. Still, members of Biden’s inner circle have sent a message to immigrants that now is "not the time" to come to the U.S. 

On immigration reform, Manchin said he would vote for a bill similar to the bipartisan one the Senate passed in 2013, which never made its way through the House. That bill was considerably less progressive than Biden’s latest proposal, which provides a pathway to citizenship for 11 million undocumented immigrants. That bill required illegal immigrants to pay fines and back taxes, learn English and wait 13 years to apply for citizenship. It also provided resources to secure the border. 

Meanwhile, Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said he didn’t think there’d be support for Biden’s pathway to citizenship plan. 

"I don't see a means for reaching that," Durbin, the chamber’s majority whip and second-ranking Democrat, told CNN. "I want it. I think we are much more likely to deal with discrete elements." 

Such a plan would likely need to exceed the 60-vote filibuster to pass. 

Customs and Border Protection (CBP) announced it had encountered more than 100,000 migrants at the border in February, while numbers of child migrants in custody have also increased dramatically. The Biden administration has been moving to increase the capacity of facilities to house migrants and building a number of extra facilities – including looking at NASA sites and military bases.

DHS CHIEF DIRECTS FEMA TO ASSIST IN 'GOVERNMENT-WIDE EFFORT' TO HOUSE CHILD MIGRANTS, AS NUMBERS SURGE 

On Saturday, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas announced he had directed the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to support a "government-wide effort" to house child migrants.

On Tuesday Mayorkas said the U.S. has not seen these kinds of numbers in decades.

"We are on pace to encounter more individuals on the southwest border than we have in the last 20 years," he said, although he later added that the situation is "not new" and noted the U.S. has faced border spikes before.

Mayorkas is scheduled to speak Wednesday at a  House Homeland Security Committee hearing on the situation at the border. 

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Teams of Republicans are visiting detention centers at the southern border. 

"It's more than a crisis. This is a human heartbreak," House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., told reporters Monday in El Paso, Texas, after visiting.

Fox News' Adam Shaw contributed to this report.