The crisis at the southern border continues, denied by no one, at this point, other than the Biden administration. This ABC video includes, I believe, footage shot and released by the administration. So this apparently is as good a face as can be put on conditions at the border:
It is hard to understand the Biden administration’s actions here. The influx of illegal immigrants, bringing children whenever possible since everyone knows that is the golden ticket, was 100% predictable. Was Joe Biden really surprised? If not, why was the administration apparently so unprepared? It is a bit of a mystery.
Notwithstanding the kid glove treatment to which Democrats are accustomed, the administration has blocked reporters from the border:
For the past four presidential administrations, I have accompanied U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents and photographed their encounters with migrants as they enforced immigration policy. No longer. Last week, when I documented migrant detentions in El Paso, I had to do so from the Mexican side of the border, taking long-range shots. Until now, journalists haven’t had to stand in another country to cover what is happening in the United States.
Most asylum seekers cross the Rio Grande into South Texas on land controlled by federal agents. For decades, the U.S. government has let journalists accompany Border Patrol agents and other officials as they surveil the land. But since the change in administration, those agents have been physically blocking journalists from the riverbank. For example, after being turned down for official access on a trip in February, I followed a Border Patrol transport bus in my own vehicle to where agents were detaining migrants. They stopped me before I got close enough to take pictures. They called a supervisor, and ordered me to leave immediately.
We have gone from the Trump-era “zero tolerance” policy toward immigrants to a Biden-era “zero access” policy for journalists covering immigration. This development is unprecedented in modern history.
Thank goodness our president isn’t a Republican, or it would be a scandal. But still, a serious question: why is the administration so nervous about allowing an always-friendly press access to what is going on? Not because of the stories reporters would write, I suspect. Rather, because journalists and film crews take pictures and shoot video. And there is no way that the most loyal reporter can spin visual images of Biden’s border disaster.
UPDATE: See also these photos, which I take it were sent to Project Veritas by someone inside the facility:
These photos were taken within the last few days. There are eight pods with eight cells each in the facility. At any given moment there are an average of 3,000 people in custody here. The illegal immigrants are separated by age or physical size depending on room. pic.twitter.com/kFmZgTG2Iv
— James O'Keefe (@JamesOKeefeIII) March 22, 2021
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