Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.V.) is sharing his thoughts on President Joe Biden’s message to immigrants and the state of the U.S.-Mexico border.
“Whatever message was sent — it was sure interpreted the wrong way,” Manchin told CNN’s Manu Raju. “It’s a crisis — oh it’s a crisis.”
The Biden administration is facing pressure to call the surge of migrants at the border a “crisis.” As of March 14, 4,200 children were being housed in detention centers.
Other lawmakers have declared it a crisis, including House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), as IJR reported.
“The security of our nation and our border is first and foremost the responsibility of our president. I came down here because I heard of the crisis. It’s more than a crisis. This is a human heartbreak,” McCarthy said during a visit to the border on Monday.
He added, “The sad part about all of this, it didn’t have to happen. This crisis is created by the presidential policies of this new administration. There’s no other way to claim it than a Biden border crisis.”
The White House coordinator for the southern border, Roberta Jacobson, sought to clarify the messaging surrounding Biden’s immigration policy during her appearance on CNN’s “New Day” on Tuesday, as IJR reported.
“It is a more humane system but it is not open borders,” Jacobson said.
Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas explained during an interview on “Good Morning America” what the administration is doing to address the situation.
“What we are doing is addressing young children who come to the border to make claims under the humanitarian laws that our country has established years and years ago,” Mayorkas said.
He continued, “And we are building the capacity to address the needs of those children when they arrive but we are also and critically sending an important message that now is not the time to come to the border.”