Biden admin responds to controversy over migrant facilities

☝️ 31:10 on the first vid, 11:50 and 18:20 on the second

A social media firestorm was set off on Monday when the Washington Post tweeted out an article about the re-opening of a federal facility for migrant children in Texas

Things kicked up the next day when Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez denounced the facilities and rallied for what she is calling a re-imagination of the US's approach to immigration

When asked her opinion on what the federal government should do about migrants, and as a White House immigration reform bill sits in Congress right now, AOC tweeted out a link to another sweeping immigration proposal by Rep. Pramila Jayapal

AOC's send-up of this country's immigration mismanagement historically, and the need for a complete rethinking of the whole system would probably find agreement with many in the Biden admin.

Indeed the Jayapal bill, and the Biden bill cover a lot of the same ground, both stressing a need for an immigration system that focuses on giving vulnerable migrants protection instead of prosecution. As for the specifics of the proposals, I will cover that in a later post.

When questioned about the purpose of the facilities, and how they compared to the "kids in cages" approach utilized under Trump and universally criticized as inhumane, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki clarified:

"We have kids coming across the border. It is heartbreaking. I think we all as human beings are heartbroken... What we are not doing is dividing these kids and separating them from their parents at the border. What we are doing is working as quickly as possible to process these kids into these Department of Health & Human Services facilities which have been revamped, which have medical and educational facilities available, so we can then transfer them into families."

When asked about AOC's statement directly, Psaki said this:

"We will be doing some briefings of course with members of Congress. There are children fleeing persecution, fleeing threats in their own countries, traveling on their own, unaccompanied to the border. And our focus is on approaching this from the view of humanity and with safety in mind. And so the steps that we have taken is-- they are of course processed as quickly as possible, ideally with a maximum of 3 days, through Customs & Border Patrol. Then they are transferred to facilities overseen by Department of Health & Human Services. We had to re-open a new facility that had previously been closed, because of COVID protocols. Because we can't have kids in beds next to each other, we need space appropriated. It's been revamped. There are educational services there. There are mental health services and medical services. But our objective is to move them as quickly as we can into families that have vetted, and to of course reunite kids with their families.

"We will work of course with congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez on a range of issues, and we look forward to doing that... There are only a couple of options here. Either we send the kids back, to a very dangerous journey back to their countries. That's not a good option. I don't think anyone would support that option. Or we send them to families that have not been vetted. We've seen challenges with that in the past where kids have then been trafficked. Our best option, in our view, with these kids is to get these kids processed through DHHS facilities where there are COVID protocols in place, where they are safe, where they can have access to educational and medical care. There are very few good options here, and we chose the one we thought is best."

When asked what they will do to ensure against abuse, another concern people had, Psaki said this:

"We are not using the past management as our guide. The Secretary of Homeland Security is overseeing in coordination with DHHS, to ensure that these children are treated humanely. They are provided the medical assistance they need, the mental health assistance they need... These kids have been through a trauma, and we want to treat them humanely and make sure they're kept safe... Certainly that's our expectation."

Okay, so TL;DR:

• reiterated that the Biden admin's approach is based on welfare as opposed to punishment as it was in the Trump admin.

• said children are processed from the not-good CBP facilities to the somewhat-good DHHS in less than 72 hours normally (mentioned there were situations that have taken longer due to weather, storms, lack of electric power, etc.)

• confirmed the specific facility was indeed closed before, and was reopened because they needed more space to comply with COVID guidelines (hence the designation overflow facilities) however it is NOT the same as it was in under the previous admin and had been revamped

• reiterated that children have access to education, medical and mental health care in the facilities and also follow COVID protocols

• confirmed the facilities are for temporary safe stay while sponsors and families are vetted. said that sending kids straight into situations without proper vetting in the past has led to negative outcomes such as human trafficking. cause i saw some people in here were saying they should close down the facilities and do that

• said DHHS will allow the media and the public to view conditions of the facilities, and they would support Rep. Jayapal's proposal of allowing Congressional oversight + inspections to ensure safety and prevent abuse

Senate parliamentarian rules against $15 minimum wage

Some bad news for the Democrats as a much talked-about component of their $1.9 trillion stimulus proposal-- the foundation for raising the national minimum wage to $15 by 2025-- was struck down today by the Senate Parliamentarian

A prospective $15 minimum wage has had wide support from voters on both sides, and has been considered overdue by many. The last time the federal minimum wage had increased was in 2009, to the current rate of $7.25

Senator Bernie Sanders and a team of lawyers had recently argued in favor of the wage hike to the Parliamentarian. Previously, as President Biden urged Congress to pass his legislation, he had previously expressed doubt about the wage increase staying in the bill

However it is apparently possible for Vice-President Harris to overrule the Parliamentarian, at least in theory, unlikely as it may be

As for Republicans, so far not a single member has supported the proposal.

lol. This type of mental gymnastic is astounding

the first post ITT is literally unedited

im not talking about that. you should clarify in some capacity that they do not support the min wage increase

you and i both have no idea what they'll do

they said they would do it. if they leave without doing it, then they failed

that's the whole point of the thread

they have a chance to do it right there just as student debt, any amount, could have been cancelled at any point since january 20th.

Synop, I'm just not gonna respond if you're gonna troll like this

Minimum wage still being 7.25 is a disgrace

i dont care if you respond or not lol just stop living in fantasy land

wouldn't that make them look good?

if in 2024 minimum wage is still $7.25 and it says they don't support it being higher

as opposed to if it said they did, and didn't do it?

Are my student loans cancelled yet

So all that s*** they said they were gonna do & fight for leading up to the election getting shot down already

well

they arent doing it simply because they dont support it

so take that as a biden promise being broken is all im saying

deadass

can't believe i really used to bust my ass for $9 an hour

So glad that a person making over $80 an hour can decide we can't increase the minimum wage to $15, all because of a senate rule made by a leader of the KKK

Bro doing a speed run of the Obama switcharoo

go work

I have a job

how much debt do you have?

Question: why do people keep begging for the government to raise the federal min wage? can't the cities and states do it themselves?

plenty of cities have min wages of $15 and have had it for a while now

they also don't realize the federal min wage effects everywhere in usa and not just LA and NYC.

they already have $15 minimum wage in those cities.

some places like Alabama, where I live, will never raise their minimum wage unless forced to. They are still at the current federal minimum of $7.25