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this week
we're focused on the u.s mexico border
and a test of whether joe biden
can match his words with actions
what do you do with an unaccompanied
child that comes to the border do you
repeat what trump did
take them from their mothers to move
them away hold them in cells etc
we're not doing that since joe biden
became president tens of thousands of
people have arrived at the u.s
border most have been turned back
but in a change of donald trump's policy
unaccompanied children
are now not turned back and these
pictures
are our first site of where they
initially stay
children packed into confined areas
surrounded by screens
and republicans are blaming the
president this crisis is created by the
presidential policies
of this new administration there's no
other way to claim it
than a biden border crisis they're
hoping nobody sees
the tragic human cost of their failed
policy
to which the biden administration says
this is on donald trump
president trump dismantled the orderly
humane
and efficient way of allowing children
to make their claims under united states
law
in their home countries he dismantled
the central american minors program so
we are rebuilding
those orderly and safe processes as
quickly as possible now joe biden has
put vice president kamela harris in
charge of this
and she acknowledges there's a lot of
work to be done we've been in office
less than 100 days
we're addressing it we're dealing with
it but it's going to take some time
and are we frustrated are you frustrated
yes we are
frustration for kamela harris
frustration for the republicans
frustration
all around but where does responsibility
lie
ford his criticism of donald trump has
president biden
actually made the situation worse and
does he need to acknowledge
this is a problem with no obvious
solution
well let's work through it starting with
the numbers
here's the u.s mexico border it's more
than 3 000 kilometers long
it's the most frequently crossed
international border in the world
this graphic shows the number of
encounters with u.s border patrol
since 2017. you'll see a peak in 2019
then a sharp fall then a rise again in
2020
so before joe biden took office and we
should note for this time of year
march 2021 is higher than the three
previous years also look at this the
number of unaccompanied children
is rising now that started under
president trump but it's increased more
rapidly
under president biden and we know where
the migrants are coming from
some from mexico others from guatemala
honduras el salvador and nicaragua
and the question at the heart of their
stories and of this issue for the white
house
is why they're heading to the u.s this
is one reason
these pictures show the aftermath of
hurricane iata in november
last year many people lost their homes
then there's the pandemic it's disrupted
everything it's created reasons to leave
and reasons to delay journeys both in
part explain
the current surge on the border and in
drug cartels violence poverty and
political repression
all of these reasons can lead people to
conclude that the us
is their best perhaps their only hope
the bbc's sophie long spoke to some
people heading to the border
these boys have fled violence and
poverty they don't know who president
biden
is all milken knows is how hard it was
to say goodbye to his mum
and young siblings they didn't know of
joe biden
but the president is part of the
equation for others
this is a photo of a protest in tijuana
on the mexican side of the border
biden please let us in read the t-shirts
and listen to this teenage boy
and whether right or wrong this
expectation
is repeatedly being heard
these teenagers get here now with the
hope that joe biden will let them in as
refugees
some u.s officials are drawing similar
conclusions
before the new president took office we
didn't have these types of numbers
coming across
as we see unaccompanied children all the
time we caught one on monday that was
from coming in from bolivia that was 10
years old by himself
but does this add up joe biden's only
two months into his presidency can we
really connect him
to what's happening well to judge joe
biden
we need to look at the numbers but we
also need to look
at how the u.s is treating people
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this audio obtained by propublica
reportedly came from inside a border
facility in texas
during the trump administration you can
hear children separated from their
parents
and calling out for them
this was one of the most divisive
moments of donald trump's presidency
and after the furore he stopped the
child separation policy
though not before hundreds of children
had been taken from their parents
and joe biden led the condemnation and
now they cannot find over 500 of
sets of those parents and those kids are
alone
nowhere to go nowhere to go it's
criminal
it's criminal and it makes us a laughing
stock and
violates every notion of who we are as a
nation
joe biden was also clear that if he were
president the u.s would help those in
need
i would in fact make sure that there is
we immediately surge to the border
all those people are seeking asylum they
deserve to be heard that's who we are
and if that wasn't clear enough he also
said this
where a nation says if you want to flee
and you're fleeing oppression
you should come well now joe biden is
president
and he's taken immediate action we're
going to work to
do the moral and national shame of the
previous administration that literally
not figuratively ripped children from
the arms of their families their mothers
and fathers at the border
this all got a lot of attention as did
that shift in the policy on
unaccompanied children
and later the president looked to add to
his message
i can say quite clearly don't come don't
leave your town
our city or community so first come
then don't come until we tell you to all
while changing the rules
on children and the republican senator
mitt romney
has tweeted the biden administration's
lack of understanding of the power of
incentives continues to baffle me
allowing unaccompanied minors to stay in
the u.s will yield a flood of
unaccompanied minors
its de facto child separation policy he
argues
now as we've seen the data does appear
to show a rise in the number of
unaccompanied children
after that change of policy and that
rise in arrivals means
more children are temporarily in
facilities like this
and on that the white house had this to
say
it's not acceptable but i think the
challenge here is that
there are only there are not that many
options the argument being the trump
administration
didn't maintain sufficient facilities
but the trump administration's no longer
in power
and it also didn't change the policy on
unaccompanied children
and pressure is growing the democratic
congresswoman alexandria ocasio-cortez
has tweeted about the children's
situation saying this is not okay
never has been okay never will be okay
no matter the administration
or party and these pictures that i
showed you earlier were released by
another democrat
the texas congressman henry cuellar he
says he wants to show people
what's happening and underlining all of
this concern from across the u.s
political spectrum
is the question of whether the president
has perhaps been
naive because make no mistake americans
load the child separation policy
many of them wanted the biden
administration to treat children
differently
to treat them better but changing the
policy straight away
before facilities are ready risks and
influx
and risk children ending up in
unacceptable conditions
and some would argue it also doesn't
address the more fundamental issue here
because the border between the us and
mexico is largely closed at the moment
that's because of the pandemic and so
thousands of people are waiting in
makeshift camps like these
but of course the border won't stay
closed forever
and when it opens just like his
predecessors joe biden will need to
outline how he plans to manage america's
borders
when many many people want to get in
as sabrina rodriguez writes in politico
biden is facing the reality that
building the fair and humane immigration
system he promised on the campaign trail
is a huge undertaking migrants aren't
going to stop coming just because his
officials say they shouldn't she argues
nor are progressives and republicans
going to stay quiet
just because he asks for patience to
that
some would add that while the work on
the border is urgent it's actually
america's role in the region
beyond its borders that may offer the
longer term solution
have a listen to jonathan blitzer from
the new yorker
this problem is not going anywhere we've
neglected all of the realities in the
region
that we've had a hand in for decades and
all of the consequences of that are
announcing themselves at the southern
border and they do periodically i mean
2014 2019
now they'll continue biden's pitch to
the american people was
in part simply that he wasn't donald
trump that he'd follow the science on
the pandemic that he'd stop spreading
misinformation
this was a low bar immigration is harder
much harder and cramped detention
centers filling up with unaccompanied
children
is a long way from joe biden's vision of
america
but that's what's happening and his next
move matters both to those children
and his presidency
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you