Biden Tells Illegal Migrants Flooding Border: 'Don't Come Over'
Democrat asks immigrants not to flock to America and cross border illegally
© press
Joe Biden has sent a polite request to the thousands of illegal migrants currently flooding the U.S.-Mexico border, asking them to "don't come over."
Biden made the comments during an interview with ABC News host George Stephanopoulos in Darby, Pennsylvania, on Tuesday night.
Stephanopoulos asked Biden about the growing crisis at the southern border.
The full interview is set to air on Wednesday, but the network teased the interview with a clip featuring Biden’s response to the illegal immigration crisis.
Biden gave no specific answer to the crisis, according to the 47-second clip posted by ABC News.
But he did claim that the migrants are not coming at his request.
© press
It is unclear whether he gave a more substantial answer during the full interview.
“The idea that Joe Biden said, ‘Come’ – because I heard the other day that they’re coming because they know I’m a nice guy,” Biden said, according to ABC News.
“Here’s the deal, they’re not.”
“Do you have to say quite clearly, ‘Don’t come’?” Stephanopoulos asks Biden.
“Yes, I can say quite clearly: Don’t come over,” Biden said.
“Don’t leave your town or city or community.”
WATCH:
EXCLUSIVE: @GStephanopoulos presses Pres. Biden on the border crisis.
— Evan McMurry (@evanmcmurry) March 16, 2021
"Do you have to say quite clearly, 'Don't come'?
Biden: "Yes, I can say quite clearly: Don't come over...Don’t leave your town or city or community." https://t.co/fRtObTXY0c pic.twitter.com/m802Y3tVjg
Biden also claimed that there has been a surge at the border during both 2019 and 2020.
“First of all, there was a surge in the last two years,” Biden said in a clip from the exclusive interview.
“In ’19 and ’20, there was a surge, as well.”
The Biden administration has shifted the United States’ approach to illegal immigration since the Trump administration, and even since the Obama administration.
Biden has prioritized processing and releasing illegal immigrants rather than detaining or barring them from entry into the country.
Illegal immigrants flooding into the U.S. from the southern border have claimed Biden encouraged them to come.
Illegal immigrants have swarmed the southern border in record numbers forcing the Biden administration to activate the Federal Emergency Management Agency to aid federal agents at the border.
Pew Research notes that February’s migrant apprehension was higher than the average monthly figure and that the U.S. only saw a similar surge in 2019.
Pew also notes that President Donald Trump responded to the situation by enacting a series of restrictions like his "Remain in Mexico" policy, which Biden has since rescinded.
The number of migrant children illegally crossing the southern border has exceeded federal ability to hold them, internal documents from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) show, according to Axios.
© press
The documents reportedly show that during the final week of February, Border Patrol referred roughly 321 migrant children to HHS custody daily, according to The Daily Caller.
Child migrant crossings averaged 203 per day in late January and just 47 during the first week of January.
A spokesperson from the HHS confirmed to the Daily Caller that facilities housing migrant children can operate at full capacity despite coronavirus concerns.
The federal government has also held juvenile migrants who crossed the border for 77 hours, longer than the 72 hours allowed under law, according to CNN.
The Biden Administration has refused to call the situation a crisis.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki refused to confirm reports that there were a record number of unaccompanied minors flooding the border.
Psaki also classified the situation at the border as a “challenge” rather than a crisis.
