President Joe Biden‘s failure to handle the surge in illegal immigration on the southern border, which his own policies (or lack thereof) created, has led even left-wing commentators in the mainstream media to notice the crisis.
Chuck Todd, host of MSNBC’s Meet the Press, summarized the humanitarian crisis, according to the National Republican Senatorial Committee.
“More than 5,000 children are in border patrol custody. More than 500 held for over 10 days, far longer than the 72-hour legal limit,” Todd said.
“Nearly 10,000 more are in HHS care,” he continued. “…The Administration says the U.S. is on pace to encounter more migrants on the Southwest border than it has in the last 20 years.”
ABC Chief National Correspondent Matt Gutman called the situation “unprecedented.”
The overcrowding at immigrant facilities “almost boggles the mind,” he added.
“We’ve never seen numbers like these inside these Border Patrol facilities which, in some cases, are jail-like, in most cases, are warehouse-like,” he said. “In a facility in Donna, Texas, it has capacity of 250 beds. There are 3,900 inside there.”
Gutman admitted that Biden’s policies have caused a far worse surge than that which former president Donald Trump faced.
“This is pretty much twice the number at the peak in 2018/2019,” he said.
CNN Chief White House Correspondent Kaitlan Collins said Biden’s administration has placed children in “jail-like facilities” for “hundreds of hours.”
CNN Anchor Abby Phillip said the Biden administration’s attitude that they were “prepared and that things are going well on the border seems disconnected from reality.”
CNN Washington Correspondent Pamela Brown noted that the administration has fallen short of its commitment to “transparency and accountability” by failing to let “reporters and photographers … inside the [immigration] facilities.”
Elected Democratic officials, including mayors and federal representatives, have noticed the crisis, too.
“It is the Biden border crisis in my opinion because there’s no plan of action. … It’s just kind of absurd what is happening,” said Del Rio, Texas Mayor Bruno Lazano, a Democrat.
