The media is no longer allowed access to the migrant housing facilities along the U.S.-Mexico border, as per a new directive from the Biden administration that claimed the ban is due to "coronavirus" concerns.
Migrant housing facilities located in the border of America and Mexico are currently closed off to the media, a Biden administration spokesperson told Daily Caller. Members of the media are now barred from entering the Carrizo Springs facility for unaccompanied minors, which was previously opened in Texas.
According to a Health and Human Services Administration for Children and Families (ACF) spokesperson, "The Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) is not hosting media tours of unaccompanied children (UC) facilities currently due to the COVID-19 pandemic. If media tours resume, we will send a media advisory."
The decision to ban media from migrant housing facilities along the border may sound unlike something the Biden administration would order, especially after the decision to reopen the facility that the Trump administration activated in 2019 already garnered criticism. According to The Blaze, right wing leaders called out the Biden administration's hypocrisy, which was observed even by the president's frequent left wing supporters such as New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
A known socialist, Rep. Cortez took to Twitter to oppose the Biden administration's decision to open migrant housing facilities on the border, reacting to The Washington Post's story by writing, "This is not okay, never has been okay, never will be okay - no matter the administration or party."
NPR reported in February that President Biden himself said that "Our hope and expectation is that won't stay open very long, that we will be able to provide for every kid that comes across the border to safely be housed in a facility that is licensed."
The White House claims that the Biden administration's decision to ban media from the migrant housing facilities in the border was due to the need for "additional space because of the social distance requirements of the coronavirus." Press secretary Jen Psaki explained that the Texas facility was "the safest option available."
However, the need for such "additional space" is not only due to coronavirus concerns, but actually because of the surge of immigrants coming into the U.S. following the Biden administration's failure to secure the border and impose stricter immigration rules. The Blaze reported that even Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) chief of staff Timothy Perry admitted that the agency needed to "prepare for border surges now" and "begin making changes immediately."
Perry's urgency to prepare for such a surge was evident, as he said, "We should privilege action over cost considerations; do what is needed, and the department will work on funding afterward." The Biden administration's decision to ban media from migrant housing facilities in the border may be a move to limit coverage of the realities of those who are subjected to stay in those facilities.
In January alone, there were over 5,700 unaccompanied minors who crossed the border, a number that increased from 4,850 in December and 4,500 in November, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) reported via NPR. The Biden administration insists that keeping children in migrant housing facilities will give them time to ensure that they comply with immigration laws and that they are placed in safe care by their eventual adoptive families.
