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The Political Scene | The New Yorker

Joe Biden's Crisis at the Border

The Political Scene | The New Yorker

The New Yorker

President, Barack, News, Politics, Wnyc, Obama, Lizza, Washington, Wickenden

4.3 • 3.9K Ratings

🗓️ 18 March 2021

⏱️ 27 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Donald Trump’s controversial “zero tolerance” policy, and the resulting images of migrant children being wrenched from their parents arms, were defining moments of his administration. On Biden’s first day in office, he proposed a raft of changes to America’s immigration policy, including an eight-year path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants and a plan for an orderly resettlement of refugees. But over 4,200 migrant children are currently being held in custody, and the process to deal with them has fallen into chaos.Jonathan Blitzer joins Dorothy Wickenden to discuss the surge in border crossings, and Biden’s options for addressing the migrants’ plight.

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Transcript

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This is the political scene, a weekly conversation with New Yorker writers and guests about

1:16.4

politics. It's Thursday, March 18th. I'm Dorothy Wickenden, executive editor of the New Yorker.

1:23.5

First of all, the idea that Joe Biden said, come, because I heard the other day that they're coming because they're coming because they know, I'm a nice guy, and I won't do what Trump did.

1:33.7

They're saying this. Yeah. Well, here's the deal. They're not. The adults are being sent back, number one. That's number one. Number two, what do you do with an unaccompanied child that comes to the border? Do you repeat what

1:44.5

Trump did? Do you repeat what Trump did? Take them from their mothers, to move them away,

1:49.7

hold them in cells, etc. We're not doing that. This week in an interview with George Stephanopoulos

1:55.4

on ABC News, President Biden struggled to address his first major policy crisis and one of the most difficult

2:02.1

issues facing the country, what to do about migrants at the southern border. Trump's controversial

2:08.6

zero-tolerance policy and the resulting images of migrant children being wrenched from their

2:14.2

parents' arms were defining moments of his administration.

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