Speaking to reporters at the White House Friday, Press Secretary Jen Psaki acknowledged that the Biden administration policy of admitting all unaccompanied minors who show up at the U.S. southern border is causing the number of children traveling alone to increase.
"The big difference, which we certainly understand the outcome may be an influx of more children. If you were kicking children out, there's naturally by design, there's going to be more children that come in," Psaki said. "We certainly have a different approach. We understand the outcome and the impact of that."
"All I'm conveying is that obviously we're going to have more kids across, in the country since we've been letting unaccompanied minors stay and the last administration immorally kicked them out, in our view," she continued.
CNN's Jeremy Diamond frets to Jen Psaki at the White House press briefing that Biden's
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) March 5, 2021
"rhetoric and some of this policies may have, as well intentioned as they may have been, inadvertently contributed to the rise in migrants that we're seeing at the border" pic.twitter.com/mq60zoDxj5
Customs and Border Protection predicts at least 117,000 unaccompanied minors will cross into the U.S. this year. Psaki was asked if an unlimited number of them will be admitted and ultimately allowed to stay indefinitely.
Excellent question from Fox's @KristinFisher to Jen Psaki about the border: "Is the plan then to take in & safely & humanely find a home for an unlimited number of unaccompanied children?" Psaki refuses to answer, insisting we "tak[e] a step back as human beings & as mothers" pic.twitter.com/sD85gYnAqv
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) March 5, 2021