Tipsheet

White House Walks Back Biden's Border 'Crisis' Comment

Leah Barkoukis
Leah Barkoukis  |  April 20, 2021 6:30 AM

The White House on Monday walked back President Biden’s use of the word “crisis” in reference to the situation at the southern border, saying he doesn't actually believe that.

"The president does not feel that children coming to our border seeking refuge from violence, economic hardships, and other dire circumstances is a crisis," Psaki said during a press briefing on Monday. "He does feel that the crisis in Central America, the dire circumstances that many are fleeing from, that that is a situation we need to spend our time, our effort on, and we need to address it if we’re going to prevent more of an influx of migrants from coming in years to come."

On Saturday, Biden had used the term when speaking to reporters after playing golf at the Wilmington Country Club.

When asked about the cap on refugees admitted to the U.S., Biden replied: "We're gonna increase the numbers. The problem was that the refugee part was working on the crisis that ended up on the border with young people and we couldn't do two things at once. And now we're going to increase the numbers.”

Biden’s announcement came after pressure from liberal activists to increase the number of refugees the U.S. admits.

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According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data, March's figures showed an alarming increase in the number of people crossing illegally. 

"In March 2021, CBP encountered more than 172,000 persons attempting entry along the Southwest border. This total represented a 71 percent increase over February 2021," CBP noted in a statement earlier this month. "This fiscal year CBP has already had over 569,800 encounters. This represents an increase of 24 percent from the total encounters we had during all of Fiscal Year 2020, when migration was limited by the COVID-19 pandemic, and an increase of over 34 percent from approximately the same time frame of Fiscal Year 2019."