President Biden’s refusal to call the dire situation at the southern border what it is (a crisis) is essentially no different than the refusal of his predecessors to identify other crisis situations honestly.
Despite the spike in illegal crossings of the border, including by migrant children, and the hundreds of people infected with coronavirus in temporary detention facilities, the White House refuses to call the situation a crisis.
During a press briefing on Monday, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said, “Children presenting at our border, who are fleeing violence, who are fleeing prosecution, who are fleeing terrible situations, is not a crisis.” Ironically, Psaki, in response to questions earlier this month from reporters about why Biden hasn’t held a press conference, said that the president came into office “during a historic crisis,” referring to “a pandemic like the country had not seen in decades and decades, and an economic downturn that left tens of millions of people out of work.” Here, “crisis” was an appropriate term to describe the pandemic and its economic ramifications.
Last week, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas declined to call what is happening at the border a crisis. Instead, he described “the situation at the border.” It’s a sugarcoating of the alarming trend: 97,000 arrests of migrants illegally crossing the border last month, the highest figure since 2019.
The Biden administration refusing to call the situation at the border a “crisis” is essentially no different than when President Donald Trump refused to genuinely call what transpired in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017 what it was: an act instigated by white supremacists. Trump’s initial reaction was that what happened was an “egregious display of hatred, bigotry, and violence on many sides.”
While there was violence on both sides, there was no moral equivalence. A far-right fanatic rammed his car into a crowd of peaceful counterprotesters, killing one and injuring 28 others. Although Trump later said that “racism is evil, and those who cause violence in its name are criminals and thugs, including the KKK, neo-Nazis, white supremacists and other hate groups,” it was a scripted moment that was soon undone in a press conference in which he reverted to his original statement, equivocating between both sides instead of providing moral clarity as he correctly did in the second attempt.
Biden’s refusal to call what’s happening at the southern border a crisis is also no different than President Barack Obama, whom Biden served under as vice president, in refusing to call acts of violence in the name of Islam for what they are: “radical Islam,” “Islamic extremism,” or “Islamic terrorism.”
Actions speak louder than words. Still, the necessary first step in solving a problem is correctly identifying the problem. The Biden administration has refused to take this first step. Along with the reckless actions it has taken on immigration, including stopping border wall construction and ending the requirement that asylum-seekers remain in Mexico while their claim is being evaluated by the United States, the administration has enabled a crisis.
Moral clarity is crucial, including from the president, in calling a spade a spade.
Jackson Richman is a journalist in Washington, D.C. Follow him on Twitter: @jacksonrichman.
