White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki says the Biden administration is not continuing a Trump-era policy that separated migrant children from their parents at the border.
The White House is facing criticism after it was reported that the officials had reopened a facility used by the Trump administration in 2019 to house migrant children.
On Thursday, co-host of “The View” Meghan McCain noted that President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris “repeatedly spoke out against kids in cages.”
“I feel like this is the same thing and that you’re still detaining kids at the border, and it’s not meaningfully different than what President Trump was doing,” she charged.
Psaki pushed back, “Well it’s absolutely not the same thing, Meghan. We are not ripping children from the arms of their parents. That is horrible and immoral and something we saw in the last administration.”
Instead, she noted that “kids are fleeing prosecution” and “really difficult circumstances in their home country” and are traveling to the U.S.
She continued:
“And we need to figure out how to treat them humanely and keep them safe. And in the time of COVID, that means we needed to open an additional facility so that we could have educational services, so we could legal services, so we could have medical and health services, and have those kids there treated humanely until we can find proper homes, family placements for these kids.”
Watch the exchange below:
.@PressSec defends Biden admin’s decision to reopen a migrant facility for unaccompanied children, telling @TheView it’s “absolutely not the same” as Trump’s policy and was “best decision” to “keep these kids safe”: “We are not ripping children from the arms of their parents.” pic.twitter.com/OFFOV7ty7C
— The View (@TheView) February 25, 2021
Psaki said the decision is “incredibly difficult” and “heart-wrenching,” but it is “the best decision we felt we could make to keep these kids safe.”
McCain asked, “Are you or are you not detaining children separately in a different facility?”
“This is a facility that was reopened. It was revamped. And it was redone. To have these kids in a place where they could have access to educational services, health services,” Psaki responded.
The press secretary also said that the migrant children cannot be sent to “families that haven’t been vetted.” Additionally, due to concerns about COVID-19, Psaki said not every migrant child can be kept in a facility operated by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
However, McCain argued no matter the conditions of the facility, “Kids are being separated from their families.”
Psaki again pushed back as she noted that the administration’s goal is the reunite the migrant children with their parents. She added, “We are absolutely not doing what the former president did… which is ripping kids from the arms of their parents.”
As Vox notes, the Biden administration is opening facilities to temporarily shelter migrant children who arrive at the border without their parents until they can be processed and officials can “transfer them to families.”
However, immigration advocates worry officials will not act quickly to reunite them with families or guardians.
In 2018, then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions implemented a zero-tolerance policy that required officials to detain migrant parents, who crossed the border illegally, pending deportation hearings. Their children were sent to separate facilities.
In Biden’s first week in office, he rescinded that order.