Pelosi says Biden has southern border situation 'under control'

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House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Biden Administration is getting border 'under control'

Pelosi speaks to reporters at a news conference on March 19, 2021 at the Capitol about the surge of migrants at the southern border.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., expressed confidence in President Biden's handling of the surge of migrants at the Southern border, saying he's got it "under control."

Pelosi said Biden is approaching the migrants, especially unaccompanied minors, in a more "humane" way than former President Donald Trump, and the transition will take some time.

"The Biden administration has this under control," Pelosi said Friday during her weekly news conference at the Capitol. "It is change and it will take some time, but it is values-based, humanitarian ... [and] pragmatic with a plan to get things done."

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Republicans have been pummelling Biden in recent weeks for the surge of migrants that have flocked to the border, and they've blamed the Democrat's rhetoric and the canceling of Trump's immigration policies for the uptick. 

Biden's Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Tuesday said that the U.S. is on track to encounter more migrants than it has in the last 20 years as he described the border surge as "difficult."

But Pelosi dismissed the Republicans' focus on the border, with regular news conferences and congressional trips to Texas, as diversionary.

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She said the Biden team is addressing the immediate concerns at the border, developing "more humane" ways to care for the migrant children and tackling the source of the problem in the migrants' Central American home countries. 

Biden has a plan and "not just a diversionary tactic on the part of the Republicans because they are bankrupt of ideas," Pelosi said. 

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She said Congress is prepared to invest in the Northern Triangle countries --  El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras -- to improve the lives of the people who are seeking to flee to the United States.

"Yes, it will take some resources -- a small price to pay for people to stay home," Pelosi added.