WASHINGTON: US President Joe Biden has admitted that he cannot completely solve what he considered to be the long-existing border problem caused by the excessive influx of migrants, claiming that the situation is improving and that it can get "a lot better" soon.
"Truth of the matter is nothing has changed," It happens every single solitary year." Biden's remarks pushing back against the growing criticism of his administration's handling of the skyrocketing migrant border-crossings, reports by Xinhua news
US media, citing official data that has not been publicly released, reported that the average daily number of unaccompanied migrant children detained by border officials has now topped 600, twice as many as in 2019, when the number peaked at around 370 on average a day.
Republicans and other critics have blamed the surging new arrivals on the Biden administration being more laxiity on immigration than the former Donald Trump administration, claims the President denied, saying economic reasons and seasonal factors were the main drivers that propelled migrants to make the US-bound journeys.
"The reason they're coming is that it's the time they can travel with the least likelihood of dying on the way because of the heat in the desert, number one. Number two, they're coming because of the circumstances in their country." The President said the "vast majority" of migrant families coming to the US border are being sent back by his administration, which in the meantime is also "moving rapidly to try to put in place" a migration processing system dismantled by the Trump administration.
At the press conference, Biden pledged that he was committed to transparency and providing media access to facilities run by the CBP and other agencies, but did not give a timetable as to when that would happen.
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