White House grapples with surge at border

The Biden administration is WASHINGTON — scrambling to manage a growing humanitarian and political challenge at the U.s.-mexico border.

With the number of migrants surging, administration officials say Biden inherited an untenable situation that resulted from what they say was President Donald Trump’s undermining and weakening of the immigration system.

But as Congress pivots to immigration legislation, stories of unaccompanied minors and families trying to cross the border have begun to dominate the headlines.

The White House dispatched Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to four news shows Sunday in an effort to stress that it was working to get things under control.

“Our message has been straightforward — the border is closed,” Mayorkas said. “We are expelling families. We are expelling single adults. And we’ve made a decision that we will not expel young, vulnerable children.”

The White House has refused to call the situation a “crisis,” leading to a Washington battle over the appropriate description of the tense situation. Career immigration officials had warned there could be a surge after the November election and the news that Trump’s hard-line policies were being reversed.

In the first days of his term, Biden acted to undo some of Trump’s measures, interpreted by some as a signal to travel to the U.S. While the new administration was working on immigration legislation to address long-term problems, it didn’t have an on-the-ground plan to manage a surge of migrants.

“We have seen large numbers of migration in the past. We know how to address it. We have a plan. We are executing on our plan and we will succeed,” Mayorkas said.

Officials are trying to build up capacity to care for 14,000 migrants now in federal custody — and more likely on the way. Critics say the administration should have been better prepared.

Since Biden’s inauguration on Jan. 20, the U.S. has seen a dramatic spike in the number of people encountered by border officials. There were 18,945 family members and 9,297 unaccompanied children encountered in February — an increase of 168% and 63%, respectively, from the previous month, according to the Pew Research Center.