Sen. Chris Murphy Went To The Border And Found Out Who Caused The Crisis (Hint: It Wasn’t Biden)

Last updated on July 18th, 2023 at 01:24 pm

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) made a trip to the border and what he found was the Biden administration trying to fix the crisis that was caused by Trump.

Sen. Murphy on NPR’s Weekend Edition:

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Sen. Murphy described what he saw, “[T]he rise in children coming to the border has happened so quickly that it has been difficult to move them out of these detention facilities in under three days. Right now as we speak, [the Biden administration is] building new capacity to be able to house these children and filling new slots in the HHS system. So they are also trying to rebuild a program that the Trump administration ended in Central America to allow for kids to apply for asylum there.”

Murphy continued, “You know what Donald Trump did was essentially tear down the entire asylum system. And so when you had this massive increase in children coming to the border, first at the end of last year, continuing with the Biden administration, it was very difficult to be able to move these kids out of detention in that 72 hour period. So the Biden administration has been working very fast to try to rebuild the asylum systems, trying to let these kids once again apply to stay in this country if their lives are truly in danger back home in Guatemala or Honduras, but they inherited an absolute mess, a wreck from the Trump administration. They’re trying to do better as quickly as they can. So they’re going to be opening up new facilities for these kids throughout the Southwest border in the coming weeks. Hopefully you’ll be able to see these times go back down below 72 hours very quickly. They’re doing their best.”

Murphy said conditions are better than they were under Trump, but this is still not a place that anyone would want their kids in for more than 10 minutes.

The rise in migrants started at the end of last year, which means that it began under Trump. Republicans are trying to blame Biden for this issue, but it was Trump who dismantled the asylum system. It was Trump who saw a rising number of children who were arriving on the border. It was Trump who did nothing.

Republicans are blaming Joe Biden for cleaning up another Trump disaster.

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Jason Easley

Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.

Awards and  Professional Memberships

Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association