A growing chorus of lawmakers from both sides of the aisle called on the Biden Administration to allow reporters and journalists access to facilities housing unaccompanied migrant children who have sought asylum at the US-Mexico border.
The call for greater transparency with the American public and those who cover it comes as the United States faces a growing humanitarian crisis on its southwestern border, caused by the economic devastation of Central America, climate changegang violence and political persecution, as well as a new presidential administration.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas predicts the United States is poised to encounter more migrants at its southwestern border than in 20 years. Amid the continued increase in crossings, President Biden said on Sunday that “at some point” he will go to the border.
Senator Rob Portman, a senior member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee and one of four senators who accompanied Mayorkas to the border on Friday, told CBS News’ “Face the Nation” that he would push ” absolutely” to open Custom and Border Protection Facilities (CBP) to journalists as part of calls for transparency.
“It should be transparent,” Portman said. “It’s amazing to me how little my constituents know about what’s going on along the border. It’s a situation that’s spiraling out of control.”
Senator Chris Murphy, chairman of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security, also participated in the trip to the US-Mexico border. The Democratic lawmaker told NPR on Saturday that opening up access to media coverage is “something we should all be pushing the administration to do better on.”
“We want to make sure the press has access to hold the administration accountable,” he said. “That’s what I was there for, to hold them accountable. And they’ve seen a push that started last year, that started under the Trump administration, but it’s real. It’s pressing their resources.”
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As of Saturday morning, more than 5,000 unaccompanied minors remained in a CBP detention tent in southern Texas and at other stations along the border with Mexico. According to government records, unaccompanied children spend an average of 136 hours in CBP custody, well over the legal limit of 72 hours.
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) was also housing nearly 10,500 unaccompanied children in state-approved emergency shelters and shelters to care for minors, according to the spokesperson for the department, Mark Weber.
Another travel lawmaker, Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, the top Republican on the Senate Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee, told the Washington Post on Saturday that more than 200 border agents had been diverted to a customs processing center. and Border Protection in El Paso to look after the children.
According to Capito, up to 100 migrant children were being held in a large room at the facility amid the coronavirus pandemic, and many are being held by CBP beyond the legal limit of 72 hours before being transferred to HHS. Capito expressed concern about the extended stay at CBP facilities, noting, “They’ll be releasing 50 a night [and] bring in another 100 people that night.”
The Republican senator also told the Washington Post that she confirmed with the DHS secretary that reporters should be allowed inside border facilities. “I begged him to be so transparent with us…but also with the press,” Capito said.
In an interview with ABC News on Sunday, Mayorkas cited both privacy and health issues in letting reporters into the facilities. “Let’s be clear, we’re in the middle of the pandemic. We’re talking about a crowded border patrol post where we’re focused on operations,” Mayorkas said.
“At the same time, and let me assure you, we’re working on a plan to provide access so people can see what’s going on. at border patrol stations,” the DHS secretary continued. “I encourage people to also see the Department of Health and Human Services facility where the children are housed, where they belong and where we transfer them.
The delegation’s trip to the border on Friday remained closed to the press “for privacy and COVID-19 precautions,” according to the DHS statement.
A Biden administration official said Thursday that DHS made an “operational decision” in March 2020 “to discourage visitors” due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and that this rule “still stands.”
Journalists have been allowed into government facilities to inspect conditions and speak with asylum seekers during previous waves of migrants, including under the Trump administration in 2018 and the Obama administration in 2014.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters on Wednesday that the Biden administration had no timetable for when the public could see conditions inside border facilities, amid repeated interrogations in the White House briefing room.
“We remain committed to sharing with you all data on the number of children crossing the border, the measures we are taking, the work we are doing to open facilities, our own bar that we are setting, the improvement of la and expedite the timeline and treatment of these children,” Psaki said, referring further questions to the Department of Homeland Security. “And we remain committed to transparency. I don’t have an update for you on the access schedule, but it’s definitely something we support.”
In addition to media access, the Biden administration did not provide photos or videos documenting the interior of overcrowded government facilities housing migrant children amid the COVID-19 public emergency.
But the Biden administration, including Homeland Security officials, has repeatedly pledged to expand transparency and access to the department’s operations since before the president’s inauguration. During his confirmation hearing before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on January 19, Mayorkas promised “to raise the level of public engagement, so that we are a transparent agency – transparent not only to the public we serve, but for the media whose responsibility is in part to hold us accountable.”
Camilo Montoya-Galvez contributed to this report.
