Peter Doocy, a White House correspondent for Fox News, once again managed to set off White House Press Secretary Karine Jean Pierre, pressing her on illegal immigration and the crisis at the border and sparking a chaotic and heated back-and-forth spat. KJP was attempting to shoot down his arguments about Biden’s blame for the state of the border, but Doocy succeeded in bringing the issue to the fore once more.
This spat came in September of 2023, back before Gov. Greg Abbott decided to step in and defend the border in a stronger manner than the Biden Administration would, particularly at Eagle Pass, Texas, the popular border-crossing town. At the time Doocy was pressing KJP for an answer on the matter, 10,000 illegal immigrants crossed in a single day. Since then, Abbott and the border defenses he ordered deployed have slowed the flow somewhat. Though this incident happened half a year before this article was written, we believe it’s important in that it shows the Biden Administration’s limited response to the border crisis before Abbott stepped up and pushed back.
As more general background, the illegal immigration crisis at the US-Mexico border has grown massively under President Joe Biden. Though the Biden Administration insists it is doing all it can to defend the border, many, particularly on the right, allege that the disastrous border situation is thanks to Biden’s reversal of many of Trump’s strict immigration policies.
Doocy, starting the spat, asked, “So, what do you call it here at the White House when 10,000 people illegally cross the border in a single day?” KJP, as usual, had no real answer, saying, “So, what do you call it, Peter, when GOP puts forth a — wait, no —” Doocy cut her off, interjecting, “Asking are you —” She then snapped, saying, “No, no, no, no, no, no, you can’t —”
Things then got even more chaotic. He tried pressing her, saying, exasperatedly, “Karine —” She insisted she was doing nothing wrong, saying, “I’m answering. Okay, we’re going to move on.” He then noted that she never answered the question, saying, “You’re answering a question with a question” She went back to just saying “no” repeatedly as he tried to get that line out, saying, “No, no, no, no, no, no, no.”
She then refused to answer Doocy’s question at all, instead insisting that she was “moving on” as Doocy tried to get her to answer the question about the massive number of border crossers flowing into the United States over the US-Mexico border.
However, the Eagle Pass issue did come up again in the press conference. KJP was asked, “The administration said yesterday it was granting temporary legal status to hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans. At the same time, the city of Eagle Pass in the Rio Grande has announced a state of emergency because of immigrants surge. Is there any concern that the timing of this Venezuelan TPS announcement might exacerbate what’s happening in Eagle Pass right now? And — and, you know, essentially, is this going to make the situation in Eagle Pass worse?“
Responding, KJP claimed Biden was working “very hard” to secure the border, saying, “So, look, we have worked very hard — the President have worked very — very hard to pleme- — implement a strategy, when it comes to the border, that is humane, safe, and has orderly enforcement. That is something that we have tried to do and worked really hard to do these last two years.”
She added, “I do want to add a couple of things that we also announced yesterday, as you — just to note — I’m sure you know — which is escalating the fight against smuggling and trafficking by prosecuting an increasing number of smugglers as well as non-citizens who are violating our laws. Right? This is an announcement we made yesterday. Also, in deploying 800 new active-duty military personnel to support border efforts and get CBP agents and officer out in the field. This is up to — up to — this on top of the 2,500 National Guard personnel also deployed. And expanding the Fentanyl [Family] Expedited Removal Management. So, those are three other pieces that we announced, as well as the Venezuela TPS yesterday. Let’s not forget the 24,000 CBP agents and officers along the southwest border.”
Then, blaming Republicans for the issue, she said, “So, we have taken steps without the help of — of Republicans in Congress to do everything that we can to deal with this issue. And let’s not forget what the Republicans proposed. Their continuing resolution would lead 800 CBP agents and officers being fired and (inaudible) 50,000 pounds of cocaine, more than 300 pounds of fentanyl, more than 700 pounds of heroin, and more than 6,000 pounds of — of other drugs to — to enter the country. That is what they proposed just a day — a day ago. And that’s what that would do to the — to the border; it would hurt and harm and not deal with the issue. So, they are doing the opposite of what the President is trying to do — is actually move forward in a way that is humane, safe, and has an orderly enforcement pathway process here.”
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video
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