The White House on Monday walks back remarks President Biden made over the weekend in referring to the influx surge of unaccompanied minors crossing the southern border as a "crisis", arguing that he misspoke and that he actually was implying the conditions in Central America that have led to migrants to flee, not the situation regarding minors being held in cramped jail-like detention facilities at the border.
On Saturday, Biden said that "young people" arriving "on the border" was a "crisis", finally used the word his administration has avoided since taking office to admit that the chaotic situation at the border made it a bad time as a reason his administration decided at first not to increase refugee admissions.
"We're going to increase the number [of refugees allowed into the country]", Biden said Saturday after a round of golf in Wilmington, Delaware, while speaking to reporters. "The problem was that the refugee part was working on the crisis that ended up on the border with young people".
"We couldn't do two things at once", Biden added. "But now we are going to increase the number".
During the daily White House press briefing, Psaki refused to reiterate her boss remarks, instead claiming that Biden actually believes that there is a crisis in Central America and not at the border, despite the ever-growing man-made crisis are quickly outpacing the 10 large emergency detention facilities the Biden administration set-up at the border are filled at capacity.
"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.
Psaki added: "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 on, our effort on. And we need to address it if we're going to prevent more of an influx of migrants coming in years to come".
