What does sharing information between the outgoing Trump administration and the incoming Biden team have to do with the crisis at the border?
Biden is once again trying to blame Donald Trump for the crisis that the new president created at the border with his own rhetoric, but his bizarre explanation needs some unpacking. He told NBC News Today co-host Craig Melvin that the problem was due to what happened during the presidential transition. It should be noted that only 9,000 border crossers were apprehended by the border patrol in December 2020.
There were more than 171,000 in March.
“The two departments that didn’t give us access to virtually anything were the immigration and the Defense Department,” said Biden, who added that his team didn’t know until he was sworn into office that Trump had fired many people from those departments and they were “understaffed considerably.”
I’m still failing to understand what this has to do with 171,000 illegal immigrants showing up at our border when Trump had the problem under reasonable control. And the reason they were “understaffed” was that you don’t need the same number of personnel to handle 9,000 new arrivals as you do 171,000.
Biden declined to call the border situation a crisis. He also acknowledged that his administration has struggled to reunite the children and families who had been separated under Trump policies.
“We don’t know yet where those kids are,” he said. “We’re trying like hell to figure out what happened. What happened to that child when he got separated? Where’d they go? Where are they?”
“They didn’t have beds,” he continued. “They didn’t plan for the overflow.” Unfortunately, there was a lack of gypsy — er, Roma — fortune tellers hired by the Trump administration and no one could see how bad it would truly get under Biden.
For Biden, the buck will always stop at Donald Trump’s desk.
If the Trump administration wasn’t preparing for a migration overflow, it’s because there was no overflow for which to prepare. Trump had implemented a number of successful policies that helped immigration agents get control of the 2019 humanitarian crisis and prevent it from happening again. His “Remain in Mexico” policy made sure border facilities weren’t overrun by migrants seeking asylum. His decision to end “catch and release” allowed officials to process and deport migrants quickly who did not qualify for asylum in the U.S. Both of these policies also protected border towns from being overwhelmed by migrants who needed assistance while awaiting court hearings.
Biden’s repeal of almost all of Trump’s border policies was a green light to the millions wanting to come to the U.S. It was a clear signal that led directly from “A” to “B” — actions to results — and cannot be mistaken as anything else by reasonable people who aren’t besotted with partisanship.
Biden is getting away with blaming Trump for his border troubles because the media is allowing it and assisting in spreading the lie. There was no follow-up question by reporter Melvin during the interview to challenge Biden’s bald-faced lies. And there never will be.
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