White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said during a press briefing Wednesday that President Joe Biden’s administration was left to deal with a border crisis that was made worse by former President Donald Trump’s administration.
Fox News White House correspondent Peter Doocy said that it had been nearly four months since Biden told people not to cross the border and nearly four months since Vice President Kamala Harris went to Central America to tell people not to come to the U.S.
“But people are coming in record numbers,” he said. “Does the president think his immigration plan is working?” (RELATED: Biden Names Official To Help Reverse Trump-Era Immigration Policies)
DOOCY: “People are coming in record numbers. Does [Biden] think his immigration plan is working?”@PressSec: “We’re still at work improving a system that was very broken when we took office.” pic.twitter.com/rGBzW4m8Bm
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) August 4, 2021
Psaki said that Biden continues to tell people that now is not the time to come to the U.S. and is working on the process to apply for asylum or legal status.
“Well the president continues to convey to anyone, as you’ve said, who want to come to the United States, now is not the time to come,” the press secretary said. “It is not the time to come and go through irregular migration. We want to have an effective process where you can apply for asylum or you can apply for legal status.”
She added that the administration has invested in programs to allow people to apply from within their country so they are not crossing the border illegally, but admitted that there is “more work that needs to be done.”
“We have increased our investment in areas like the Central American Minors Program allowing people to apply from within a country so they are not making that dangerous trip,” she said.
“There’s more that needs to be done. We’ve also instituted a number of additional steps recently, including expedited removals to move people out of the country more quickly, but we’re still at work improving a process and improving a system that was very broken when we took office.”
Doocy pointed out that the number of people crossing the border is at a 21-year high, but Psaki said the “number of people removed is also an important part of the context.” Psaki claimed that roughly half of the migrants that are crossing the border have been removed and said that there are many factors affecting the high number of border crossings.
