Jen Psaki Denies Greg Abbott’s Characterization of Border Crisis On Day When Huge Line of People Wait for Smugglers at Rio Grande
Evan James
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White House press secretary Jen Psaki denied Texas governor Greg Abbott’s characterization of the border crisis on a day that video footage showed a large gathering of people appearing to wait for smugglers at the Rio Grande.
At Thursday’s White House press briefing, Psaki took a question from a reporter that referred to comments from Mexican president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Biden’s asylum policy. AMLO had said that illegal aliens trying to enter the US consider Joe Biden “the migrant president” and that his asylum policies encourage human and drug trafficking.
Psaki maintained that the “vast majority” of people who come to the US border through Mexico “will be turned away,” though she also said that Biden’s immigration policies aim at treating illegal aliens—including unaccompanied minors—in a more “humane” fashion than the Trump administration.
The reporter followed up by asking why travelers flying into the US need to show proof of a negative COVID test while the administration brings in illegal aliens without any knowledge of whether they’re carrying COVID.
“I think there’s been a lot of confusion about what’s been happening at the border as it relates to people who are coming across and what happens when they come across,” Psaki responded. “And I know Governor Abbott down in Texas has expressed some of his concerns, and many of those have not been based in fact […] Governor Abbott has referred to what’s happening at the border as ‘open borders.’ […] That is absolutely incorrect. The border is not open. The vast majority of individuals […] continued to be denied entry and are returned under Title 42.”
She also said authorities have tried to develop a COVID testing and quarantining system for illegal aliens but that Gov. Abbott “decided to reject that.”
Psaki’s denial of Abbott’s border crisis characterization could not have come at a worse time for her. A video recorded Thursday morning seems to show a large line of people waiting for smugglers to bring them across the Rio Grande and into the United States:
Oof. Guess those people aren’t getting denied or tested…
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