{"id":24468,"date":"2021-04-28T14:31:23","date_gmt":"2021-04-28T18:31:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/?p=24468"},"modified":"2021-04-28T14:31:27","modified_gmt":"2021-04-28T18:31:27","slug":"biden-false-promise-on-truth-transparency-immigrationreform-com","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/2021\/04\/28\/biden-false-promise-on-truth-transparency-immigrationreform-com\/","title":{"rendered":"Biden Administration\u2019s Pledge of Truth and Transparency is Hiding in the Shadows"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In her inaugural daily press briefing<\/a>, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki told reporters that she and President Biden \u201ctalked about the importance of bringing truth and transparency back to the briefing room, and he asked me to ensure we are communicating about the policies across the Biden-Harris administration and the work his team is doing every single day on behalf of all American people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, how have Biden, Psaki and\nthe administration done in terms of \u201ctruth and transparency\u201d concerning the\ngrowing crisis at the Southwest border?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI sit on the Homeland Appropriations [Subcommittee]. I get more information from across the river [Mexico] than I do from my own government which is amazing,\u201d stated Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas) during an interview on MSNBC\u2019s Morning Joe<\/a> in late March.\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cuellar, whose district borders Mexico, for months had been trying to get more information from the Biden administration on the situation inside migrant detention centers and other facilities housing increasing numbers of unaccompanied minors. As the Associated Press noted<\/a>, \u201cAdministration officials have steadfastly refused to call the detention of more than 15,000 children in U.S. custody, or the conditions they\u2019re living under,\u00a0a crisis. But they have stymied most efforts by outsiders to decide for themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two months and two days after Psaki made her pledge of transparency, as a last resort, Cuellar released photos<\/a> of the Donna, Texas, detention center to Axios which made clear why Biden et al were non-transparent. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The photos gave a glimpse of more\nthan 400 unaccompanied male minors living in center with a 260-person\noccupancy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPhotos Of Migrant Children Detention Highlighting Biden\u2019s Border Secrecy Shared By Texas Democratic Congressman Henry Cuellar,\u201d read the headline<\/a> of the CBS affiliate in Dallas. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A day after the release of the photos, the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) called<\/a> on the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to \u201clet journalists do their job by granting them access to facilities along the border and granting them interviews from officials who know and can accurately convey to the public what is going on.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSuch transparency is of the\nutmost importance at this time and all the time,\u201d added SPJ National President\nMatthew T. Hall in the statement. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In briefing after briefing,\nPsaki and other White House officials were pressed about granting more access\nto the facilities or to simply provide data about how many unaccompanied minors\nwere in the care of the U.S. government. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In her March 1 briefing, she was asked why some news outlets were denied access<\/a>, DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said he would look into \u201cthe reasons why access was denied,\u201d but added that \u201canother principle to which I intend to adhere throughout my tenure, and that\u2019s openness and transparency, and that includes the Fourth Estate.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On March 17, Psaki was asked<\/a> why the media \u201cstill have not seen any images inside these facilities?\u201d Psaki insisted they \u201cremain committed to doing that, and I think these facilities are overseen \u2014 HHS, of course, overseens [sic]\u2014 oversees the shelters; DHS oversees the Border Patrol facilities.\u00a0 And we want to work with them to ensure we can do it, respecting the privacy and, obviously, the health protocols required by COVID.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After\nCuellar\u2019s photos were released, Psaki\u2019s response was spun as some sort of\nconfirmation of the White House line. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI will say that, you know, these photos show what we\u2019ve long been saying, which is that these Border Patrol facilities are not places made for children.\u00a0They are not places that we want children to be staying for an extended period of time,\u201d argued<\/a> Psaki in trying to make it seem as the Biden administration did not control the conditions which caused the minors to flee and the conditions in which they are housed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Three\ndays later, Psaki\u2019s boss was spinning the same yarn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI will commit to transparency,\u201d stated<\/a> Biden when pressed about media access in his first press conference. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Has\nit finally gotten more transparent?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just\nthis week, Psaki was asked why Vice President Harris told CNN in an\nearlier interview that she\u2019s not gone to the border because \u201cwe have to deal\nwith COVID issues.\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is the real reason a\nfully-vaccinated Harris has not traveled with her fully-vaccinated staff in the\nvice presidential plane down to the border?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWell, I would certainly have to ask her team about that specifically, but I would tell you also that her focus is not on the border; it\u2019s on addressing the root causes in the Northern Triangle. \u00a0And that\u2019s why the majority of her time has been spent on working with \u2014 on a diplomatic level,\u201d admitted<\/a> Psaki on\u00a0April 26 in what might have been her only transparent and truthful statement about the border in the first 100 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Until the Biden administration\ncan be truthful about the crisis at the border that they created, transparency\nwill always be a promise yet fulfilled. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In her inaugural daily press briefing, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki told reporters that she and President Biden \u201ctalked about the importance of bringing truth and transparency back to the briefing room, and he asked me to ensure we are communicating about the policies across the Biden-Harris administration and the work his team is<\/p>\n

Read More<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":37,"featured_media":24282,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[10412],"tags":[10413,11112,1524,615],"yst_prominent_words":[5192,2122,5406,10470,2043,2042,11359,8192,11363,2118,5995,11362,11361,7110,3655,10931,7161,11360,2925,2715],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24468"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/37"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24468"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24468\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24469,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24468\/revisions\/24469"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24468"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=24468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}