President Joe Biden biked near a Delaware beach Sunday amid the ongoing migrant surge at the U.S.-Mexico border and a recent diplomatic crisis.
France recalled its ambassadors to the U.S. and Australia due to the two countries’ joint agreement with the U.K. to give nuclear submarines to the Australian government, which violated a previous agreement to send French submarines down under, Fox News reported. The president did not answer any reporters’ questions on the issue and continued on his bike ride to Gordon’s Pond Trail in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, with First Lady Jill Biden.
“Mr. President, what will you tell Emmanuel Macron?” a reporter asked regarding his scheduled phone call with French President Emmanuel Macron, according to Fox news. “When are you going to call Macron?” another reportedly asked Biden, who refused to answer the questions.
Joe and Jill Biden head onto Gordon’s Pond Trail for a bike ride in Rehoboth Beach pic.twitter.com/Cad0D0eRaS
— Tyler Pager (@tylerpager) September 19, 2021
Meanwhile, the migrant crisis has continued to surge at the southern border, with a recent influx of over 15,000 Haitian migrants entering Del Rio, Texas, with migrants camping under the international bridge in overcrowded and unsanitary conditions. The administration deployed 400 federal agents to the bridge and ramped up deportation flights.
The migrants, who made shelters out of plants and sticks, have been sleeping on the dirt and lack a sufficient supply of food and water in temperatures that have reached triple digits. The Haitian migrant surge began in June following the assassination of President Jovenel Moise and a series of earthquakes that devastated the country. (RELATED: Doocy Challenges Biden About ‘Untested And Unvaccinated’ Migrants Crossing The Border)
Customs and Border Protection (CBP) revealed Wednesday that border agents encountered 208,887 migrants in August, slightly decreasing from the 212,000 in July after a steady increase of encountered migrants throughout the year, the outlet reported. The number of migrants increased by 317% in comparison to Aug. 2020 and 233% at the same time in 2019.
In July, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) recorded a surge in COVID-19 cases in immigration detention facilities, amounting to 7,500 new infections within a three-month period. Vaccine mandates have not currently applied to migrants entering the U.S. or Afghan refugees while being required to private businesses consisting of at least 100 employees.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki pushed back on questions regarding the lack of vaccine mandates for migrants at a Sept. 1o press conference.
“It is a requirement for people at a business with more than 100 people. It is not a requirement for migrants at the southern border,” Fox News White House correspondent Peter Doocy said. “Why?”
“That is correct,” Psaki said before immediately moving on to the next question.
In an Aug. 24 decision, the Supreme Court rejected the Biden administration’s attempt to overturn a district judge’s revival of the “Remain in Mexico” policy, a Trump-era immigration policy requiring migrants to reside in Mexico until their scheduled immigration hearing in the U.S.
Republican Texas Sen. Ted Cruz blamed the administration’s scrapping of the “Remain in Mexico” policy —also known as the Migrant Protection Protocol — in May after the CBP released its numbers of encountered migrants, which peaked at over 180,000. During former President Donald Trump’s administration, the policy blocked 60,000 migrants from entering the U.S. as they awaited their court hearings.
After the administration’s scrapping, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) began to process 25,000 migrants previously affected by the Trump-era policy, according to NPR.
In addition to the unresolved border crisis, U.S. Central Command, Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie announced Friday that an American airstrike launched Aug. 29 killed an Afghan aid worker and his family instead of ISIS-K members, who were the targets. An unspecified number of Americans and allies remain in Afghanistan after the withdrawal of U.S. troops.