Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee: Biden border plan ‘does not look like it’s working at this time’

Even Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, Texas Democrat, has concerns about the Biden administration when it comes to restoring order at the border.

She said Sunday that the Biden administration has a plan to handle the surge of unaccompanied minors making their way to the U.S. southern border, but that “the plan does not look like it’s working.”

“We do have issues with any number of children. The numbers are coming up,” Ms. Lee said on MSNBC’s “The Sunday Show.” “But I will say that the Biden administration has met with members of Congress. They have a plan. The plan does not look like it’s working at this time, but you have to get it implemented.”

The administration has struggled to grapple with the biggest surge of migrants in two decades, prompting Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to declare Sunday that “the border is closed” and accuse the Trump administration of dismantling the immigration system.

Democrat Rep Sheila Jackson Lee on Biden’s border crisis: “the plan does not look like it’s working”https://t.co/XmUMOYDQ2s pic.twitter.com/TlcUOQ6Tvl

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“We need to put in more resources so that our asylum protocols can go quickly and those that do not meet the standards, they have to be returned safely and securely,” said Ms. Lee. “But what the administration is saying that they’re not going to cage children. They’re not going to turn children back to their deaths.”

More than 600 children have been in border-patrol custody for more than 10 days despite federal law requiring them to be processed in 72 hours and placed in federally run shelters, CNN reported Saturday, adding that “children are staying in Border Patrol custody in jail-like facilities for an average of more than five days.”

“And so it does look a little unseemly,” Ms. Lee said. “But these are human beings. They’re not coming to endanger our lives, they’re coming basically to save their lives.”