Biden contends Trump administration failed to plan for migrant ‘overflow’
by Naomi Lim, Political Reporter |
| April 30, 2021 08:12 AM
President Joe Biden blamed former President Donald Trump for his administration's early struggles to manage the surge in illegal immigration at the southern border and its inability to reunite migrant children separated from their families.
The Trump administration's refusal to cooperate during the incoming team's post-election transition period and its failure to prepare for the "seasonal" spike in illegal border crossings are to blame for the situation, Biden said.
“The two departments that didn’t give us access to virtually anything were the immigration and the Defense Department,” Biden told NBC in an interview taped Thursday, the 100th day of his term. The interview aired Friday morning.
It is unclear whether Biden meant the Department of Homeland Security or the Department of Health and Human Services. Both are responsible for migrant children at different points of the process, from apprehension to release to a parent or guardian or otherwise.
The delay meant Biden's aides did not know how "considerably" understaffed the federal agencies were, according to Biden.
“They didn’t have beds,” he said. “They didn’t plan for the overflow.”
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https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/politics/biden-trump-border-overflow
