Migrant Families Are Still Being Separated
What Next | Daily News and Analysis
Slate Podcasts
4.3 • 2.4K Ratings
🗓️ 24 March 2021
⏱️ 19 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
After four years of President Trump’s harsh immigration policies, many advocates for Central American migrants welcomed a change in administration. But after two months in office, President Biden has given a clear message to people arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border: “don’t come.” Still, thousands of people, including an increasing number of unaccompanied children, are making the trek and forcing Biden to face his first big immigration test.
Guest: Adolfo Flores, national security for immigration correspondent at Buzzfeed.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | A few weeks back, there was this moment that really summed up the Biden administration's take on immigration at the moment. |
| 0:10.2 | In an interview with ABC News, President Biden had a pretty clear message for people who are considering coming to the border. |
| 0:17.3 | Don't. |
| 0:18.1 | Yes, I can say quite clearly don't come on what we're in the process of getting set up. |
| 0:22.5 | Don't leave your town or city or community. Did that surprise you? |
| 0:28.6 | It didn't surprise me because the government, including the Trump administration and the Obama |
| 0:36.4 | administration, had always made, |
| 0:40.8 | made those statements and sent that message. |
| 0:44.2 | What surprised me, though, was that they keep doing it because it's not effective at all. |
| 0:57.0 | This is Adolfo Flores. He covers immigration for BuzzFeed. |
| 0:59.0 | Their messaging is never going to make its way down to the people who choose to immigrate. |
| 1:06.0 | Their decision to move is more informed by the conditions back home, you know, poverty violence or climate |
| 1:12.9 | change and the messaging they get from smugglers and their friends and family. |
| 1:21.8 | Joe Biden is facing a test, a surge of migrants on the southwest border. But Adolfo says, not only does Biden's |
| 1:29.6 | rhetoric not count for much. It's not really a crisis of his making either. Here's the thing, |
| 1:34.7 | like, when you look at the numbers, like, the numbers have been increasing since spring of 2020. |
| 1:41.1 | Like, the surge that we're seeing has been happening since before Biden took office. |
| 1:46.7 | But of course, that surge is Biden's responsibility now. DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas says |
| 1:53.5 | the number of people crossing is the highest it has been in 20 years. Families seeking asylum |
| 1:58.8 | are waiting in dangerous Mexican border cities vulnerable to extortion, |
| 2:03.1 | kidnapping, and worse. And more and more desperate parents are opting to send their children |
| 2:09.3 | into the United States alone. What's different now and has been different for at least a few |
... |
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