President Joe Biden guesses he “should go” to the U.S.-Mexico border.
The president was asked during Thursday night’s CNN town hall why he has not visited the southern border, despite it being nearly a year into his administration.
He was also asked, “Why did your stance on allowing immigrants suddenly revert to Trump-era policies?”
Biden responded that “the court said I had to maintain it,” referring to the Trump-era “Remain in Mexico” policy.
He later touched on the first question, stating, “I guess I should go down, but the whole point of it is I haven’t had a whole hell of a lot of time to get down. I’ve been spending time going around looking at the $900 billion damage done by hurricanes and floods and weather and traveling around the world.”
Then noting his wife, First Lady Jill Biden, has been to the southern border, Biden said, “My wife Jill has been down. She’s been on both sides of the river. She’s seen the circumstances there. She’s looked into those places.”
He continued:
“You notice you’re not seeing a lot of pictures of kids lying on top of one another with what looks like tarps on top of them. We’ve been able to deal with that. We’ve been able to significantly increase funding through the HHS to provide shelter for these kids and people. But, there’s much more to be done. It is a thing that concerns me the most about being able to get control of it.”
Watch Biden’s remarks below:
BIDEN ON THE BORDER: "I guess I should go down, but the whole point of it is I haven’t had a whole hell of a lot of time to get down. I’ve been spending time going around looking at the $900 billion damage done by hurricanes and floods and weather and traveling around the world." pic.twitter.com/mgWLxvf36d
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) October 22, 2021
Biden’s remarks come after reporting this week stated that the 2021 fiscal year —ending in September — saw the highest level of arrests of migrants at the southern border. Over 1.7 million migrants were detained after trying to cross the border. This was the highest level ever recorded.
In March, Biden appointed Vice President Kamala Harris to lead the effort to respond to border challenges.
Republicans have criticized Harris and referred to her as the United States’ “border czar.”
However, she and her staff “have made it clear that they want to focus narrowly on diplomatic efforts in Mexico and the Northern Triangle countries of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, where they believe they are more likely to achieve tangible results in addressing the root causes of migration,” CNN previously reported.
During Biden’s response to the question on Thursday night about the “Remain in Mexico” policy, he also noted that Harris is working on addressing the root causes of migration in Central America.