OPINION:
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said over the weekend that the Biden administration is “absolutely committed” to allowing journalists to tour the Border Patrol facilities and report on conditions to house children.
But why the delay? The fact that reporters are prevented at all is a red flag. The plight of children at America’s borders should not be the Big Secret of the political world.
If this were the Trump administration, the White House wouldn’t get a free pass in the media. As a matter of fact, on a different day, under a different administration, the media would be filled with images of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez standing outside a chain-link fence, decrying conditions and cages.
As it is now, Chris Wallace on Fox News raised some questions with Psaki. But where are the gate guards from all the other channels? Where are the Democrats in Congress with their gifts of soccer balls?
Of the now-estimated 18,000 children at the border, in custody of Border Protection and Health and Human Services personnel, Wallace asked: Why are you being “less transparent than the Trump administration?”
The kids are supposed to stay in Border Patrol custody only for 72 hours maximum, before being sent along to HHS shelters. Reports — in part, from Republican senators who traveled to the border and took pictures — show that’s not exactly happening. Some minors have been stuck in the processing facilities for 10 days.
But who’s really to say it’s not 12 days? Or 14? Or more?
“We want to provide access into the Border Patrol facilities,” Psaki said. “We are mindful that we are in the middle of the pandemic. We want to keep the kids safe. We want to keep the staff safe. … [But we’re] committed to allowing camerss into Border Patrol facilities, absolutely.”
Now?
Well no, not now. America will have to wait until Kamala Harris waves her vice-presidential wand over the facilities to make them appropriate for public viewing. How else to explain her sudden disappearance from the media stage and simultaneous appointment as Border Czar? She’s doing damage control, getting the sites cleaned up and shipshaped for the photographers.
“The president is working as quickly as possible to address the [border] situation,” said White House Communications Director Kate Bedingfield, also over the weekend, on ABC’s “This Week.” “Ultimately, what we need to do is address the root causes of migration.”
Spoken like a true leftist.
The root cause of this current migration is President Biden’s telecast to the world that he is the opposite of former President Trump on the border. He is open to Trump’s closed; he is red carpet to Trump’s restricted entry.
That’s why 18,000 unaccompanied minors have moved into position to surge into America — because Biden messaged they should come.
But rather than deal with that uncomfortable truth, this administration is fleeing accountability. They tried turning blind eyes to the surge while trying to turn all of America’s blind eyes to the situation, as well. The blind eye approach is failing. So now they’re trying to keep out reporters from seeing the mess they created, while sending in the select top government dogs to work some mirage magic and find some speedy places to spread out 18,000 or so children. They’re hunkering in damage control mode. They’re buying time before OK-ing the journalists.
It’s almost like Area 51 down there.
Shamefully, this administration is trying to keep the border a big secret. And remember: these are the Democrats who care so much about the children.
If they truly cared, they’d open the doors to transparency. Now. Actually, if they truly cared, they wouldn’t have opened the doors to drug traffickers and human traffickers and gangs and cartel scum to exploit thousands upon thousands of these poor children in the first place.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley. Listen to her podcast “Bold and Blunt” by clicking HERE. And never miss her column; subscribe to her newsletter by clicking HERE. Her latest book, “Socialists Don’t Sleep: Christians Must Rise Or America Will Fall,” is available by clicking HERE.
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