When it comes to keeping immigrant kids in cages, Democrats were for it before they were against it.
Yet, the practice, pioneered during the Obama Administration, only became a subject of intense scrutiny during former Republican president Donald Trump’s first term.
Now, under Democrat President Joe Biden, they appear poised to pivot—or rather, to circle back to their earlier position.
When the Washington Post ran a piece on the recent reopening of a federal detention facility—expected to house some 700 unaccompanied teenagers—that had closed during the Trump administration, media watchers immediately noticed the dramatic shift in tone.
From kids in cages to migrant facility for children. From antagonism to public relations.
— Anthony Bialy (@AnthonyBialy) February 23, 2021
In light of the Twitter backlash, Fox News correspondent Peter Doocy decided to ask White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki to clarify just what the distinction was in the new Biden policy compared with the Trump administration’s containment efforts.
During her painfully strained response, Psaki insisted that what the images of the Biden camps showed they were nothing like the solutions of his predecessor.
“This is not kids being kept in cages,” she claimed. “This is a facility being opened that is going to follow the standards of other HHS facilities.”
But some questioned whether the so-called facility was worse than cages, noting that the buildings appeared to be nothing more than repurposed shipping containers.
Bruh
Joe Biden is keeping children in caged shipping containers. pic.twitter.com/BI0VjOiRvW
— mitrebox (@mitrebox) February 23, 2021
The use of shipping containers could, potentially, help boost efficiency in the transporting of the unaccompanied minors.
Although one of Biden’s first acts was an executive order canceling Trump’s highly effective “Remain in Mexico” policy for those awaiting asylum hearings, Biden has also said he intends to solve the problem of overcrowding at the border by relocating the migrants.
Under the new administration, they will be shipped to locations throughout the US, where their hopes of reuniting with their loved ones in Mexico may be forever dashed.
Obama employed a similar policy, frequently targeting GOP-dominated counties and states to receive the bulk of the shipments, both for punitive purposes and to aid in the Left’s long-term efforts to secure permanent political majorities by importing likely Democrat voters to hostile territory.
But whether the temporary containment units were a matter of practicality or not, many conservatives continued to note the hypocrisy after top officials including Vice President Kamala Harris led the way in ratcheting up the rhetorical outrage under the Trump administration.
“This is not kids being kept in cages. This is a facility that was opened.”@PressSec defends the reopening of a child migrant facility in Texas, despite past comments from @KamalaHarris calling “babies in cages” a “human rights abuse.” pic.twitter.com/hdjMvxHmxq
— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) February 23, 2021
