Vice President Kamala Harris called the situation at the southern border “a huge problem” that is “not going to be solved overnight” as the White House struggles to accommodate the vast number of unaccompanied migrant children seeking asylum.
“Look, it’s a huge problem. I’m not going to pretend it’s not,” Harris said during an interview with CBS This Morning on Wednesday. “Are we looking at overcrowding at the border in particular of these kids? Yes.”
“Should these kids be in the custody of HHS, the Health and Human Services Department, instead of the Border Patrol? Yes,” the vice president said. Individual cases should also be processed faster, she added.
“This is, however, not going to be solved overnight,” she said.
Thousands of minors have been held in Border Patrol custody past the legal detention limit of 72 hours before being moved to longer-term facilities run by the Health and Human Services Department, stoking wide-ranging concerns over their treatment and growing numbers. The White House has resisted calling the issue a “crisis,” despite struggling to contain the numbers and, until Wednesday, refusing media access to facilities.
On Wednesday, the White House announced that staff and members of Congress would make a surprise visit to a temporary holding facility for migrant youth in Carrizo Springs, Texas, joined by one press camera. The group is not touring the border or Border Patrol facilities — and neither Biden nor Harris will accompany them.
Amid criticism that the Biden administration has refused access to reporters, the White House said it would permit a reporter to accompany the delegation. The White House’s relenting to allow one journalist in is a small shift in its effort to control the narrative surrounding the border situation.
Harris reiterated on Wednesday that she “absolutely” plans to visit the border with Biden, where she traveled previously. But she did not say when the duo might go.
“I’ve been down to the border. And our Secretary of the Homeland Security Alex Mayorkas has been down there twice,” she added. “Yes, we will go.”
Biden said Tuesday that he would “have more to say” about the crisis sometime this week and said the crisis was in part due to his predecessor in the White House. “The last administration dismantled” the border asylum system, the president told reporters.
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Former President Donald Trump had invoked a rule to deport asylum-seekers apprehended at the southern border immediately. Upon taking office, Biden ceased deporting children and some families.
