White House says Biden has ‘done more than any prior president’ to secure border
Haisten Willis
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The White House on Wednesday defended President Joe Biden‘s record on immigration, saying that no president had done more to secure the southern border than him.
Biden controversially visited the border last weekend, stopping by El Paso, Texas, on his way to a series of meetings in Mexico City. Reports surfaced that vast migrant camps in the city were cleared ahead of the visit, which prompted questions from the press corps.
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“Why didn’t President Biden want to see what’s really going on at the border?” asked a reporter during the afternoon press briefing.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre responded that he did, after which the reporter, Fox News correspondent Peter Doocy, said Biden didn’t talk to immigrants and didn’t go anywhere people actually cross illegally.
As part of her response, Jean-Pierre said Biden had not only done his part but had done more than any previous president to secure the border.
“Look, the president has been doing the work,” she said. “And if you think about the record funding, he has done more than any prior president to secure the border and build a safe, orderly, and humane immigration system.”
Despite Jean-Pierre’s reassurances, the number of illegal crossings at the border has ballooned since Biden took office. Roughly 300,000 immigrants cross the border in fiscal 2020, which jumped to 2.1 million in 2021 and 2.4 million last year.
Republicans have blasted the president’s visit as nothing more than a “fake photo op.”
“[Biden] went to the migrant center, which was a critical place to be when you think about our partners who are helping support migrants on the ground there,” Jean-Pierre said.”There happened to be no migrants at the facility during the time that he visited.”
Asked if it was just “a coincidence” that things were so calm when Biden arrived, the press secretary began defending his record.
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“That’s a good thing that we’ve seen the numbers go down,” she said. “That’s something that we should be saying, ‘OK, good job there.'”
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