Joe Biden’s administration is preparing to allow for media access to border facilities and will release details in the coming days, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said on Monday, amid criticism over the ability of reporters and photographers to gain entry to facilities housing a surge in migrant children.
“First of all, we are working to finalize details, and I hope to have an update in the coming days,” Psaki told reporters at the White House press briefing. “We are working through with the Department of Health and Human Services, and also the Department of Homeland Security to ensure privacy and to ensure that we are following Covid protocols. We remain committed to transparency, and of course as I noted last week, we certainly want to make sure the media has access to this sites.”
The issue of media access has drawn attention from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. Republicans, including former President Donald Trump, have been hammering the Biden administration, while Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) told NPR over the weekend, “We want to make sure that the press has access to hold the administration accountable. That’s the reason I was there, to hold them accountable. And they’ve seen a surge that began last year, that began under the Trump administration, but it’s real. It’s pressing their resources. And right now, these kids are staying, you know, too long in detention centers.” At the briefing, reporters pressed Psaki on reports of overcrowding in the holding facilities housing the minors.
Murphy visited the border in El Paso on Friday as part of a delegation of senators, but that briefing was closed to the press. Murphy said that “the rise in children coming to the border has happened so quickly that it has been difficult to move them out of these detention facilities in under three days,” as is required. He defended the Biden administration, and said that they were trying “as quickly as they can to process these kids in a humane way.” He and others argue that the surge started before Biden took office.