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White House says 2.7 million border crossings in a year – the most in HISTORY – is a ‘new migration challenge’ from people ‘fleeing from fallen regimes’ and is attacking Republicans again for using migrants as ‘political pawns’ ‘ to use
- US Customs and Border Protection released figures on migrant transitions on Friday
- They showed a new annual peak of more than 2.7 million crossings
- Karine Jean-Pierre was asked about the numbers during her Monday briefing
- She described it as a ‘new migration challenge’
- And said it was fueled by people fleeing repressive, failing regimes
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The White House on Monday defended its handling of a record border crisis, saying the entire Western Hemisphere was feeling the impact of people fleeing repressive regimes.
Figures released Friday showed the number of border crossings by migrants reached 2.76 million in fiscal year 2022, breaking the previous record.
Press officer Karine Jean-Pierre described the issue as a “different kind of challenge” and once again accused Republicans of trying to extract political capital from human suffering.
“This new migration challenge is driven by people fleeing regime regimes and economic collapse, as you know in Venezuela, Nicaragua and also Cuba,” she said.
“It affects the entire Western Hemisphere.”
She said arrivals from those troubled countries were up 245 percent, while those from Mexico and northern Central America fell by a quarter in the past year.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre defended the Biden administration’s handling of a record border crisis on Monday, saying the entire Western Hemisphere was feeling the impact of people fleeing repressive regimes.
Figures released Friday showed the number of border crossings by migrants reached 2.76 million in fiscal year 2022, breaking the previous record set a year earlier.
Venezuelan migrants expelled from US and sent back to Mexico last week in Ciudad Juarez
Still, customs and border police stopped more than 2,766,582 migrants in the 12 months to the end of September, compared to 1.72 million in the previous year – the previous record.
Republicans have continued a steady stream of attacks on President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, accusing them of being soft.
sen. Tennessee Marsha Blackburn tweeted: “New reports showed at least 2 MILLION encounters with migrants in FY22.
“This is the highest number in history, but it doesn’t even include the hundreds of thousands of escapes. Our border is in crisis and the White House is in denial.”
Several governors have begun transporting or flying migrants to Democrat-controlled cities to demonstrate the magnitude of the crisis.
Jean-Pierre repeated her attack on the prestige of the Republican governors.
“As we try to deal with the challenges, as you all know, you have Republican governors who are using these migrants who are using these people who are trying to flee communism, falling regimes and economic collapse… they are using them as political pawns.” ‘ she said during her daily briefing.
In total, there were 227,547 encounters along the southwestern land border in September, a 12 percent increase from August — closing the fiscal year at an all-time high.
And she showed a graph showing a decline in the number of Venezuelans arriving in the past week.
This means that for the fiscal year ending September 30, there were a total of 2,378,944 encounters – the highest level ever recorded by the department
Her comments echo those of the CBP chief when the new figures were released.
“While failing regimes in Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua continued to drive a new wave of migration across the Western Hemisphere, the number of Venezuelans arriving at the southern border has declined sharply almost every day since we launched additional joint actions with Mexico to reduce irregular migration and create a fairer , to create a more orderly and safer process for people fleeing the humanitarian and economic crisis in their country,” said CBP Commissioner Chris Magnus.
“Over the past week, the number of Venezuelans attempting to enter the country has fallen by more than 80 percent from the week prior to the start of joint enforcement actions.”