Biden makes ‘no apologies’ for Trump border rollback

President Biden said Thursday that he makes “no apologies” for rolling back former President Trump’s immigration policies as he defended his administration’s response to the swell of migrants at the southern border with Mexico.

“All the policies that were underway were not helping at all, did not slow up the amount of immigration and as many people coming,” Biden told reporters at his first formal press conference when asked whether he moved too quickly to undo the former president’s past executive actions on immigration.

Biden specifically mentioned his efforts to halt the “Remain in Mexico” policy and stop separations of migrant families at the border that were implemented under the Trump administration.

“I make no apology for that,” Biden said. “I make no apologies for ending programs that did not exist before Trump became president that have an incredibly negative impact on the law, international law, as well as on human dignity. I make no apologies for that.”

Biden also said that the images of migrant children crowded together at a Customs and Border Protection (CBP) facility in Donna, Texas, are “totally unacceptable” and said his administration is working as quickly as possible to expand spaces for migrant children to be housed safely.

“That’s a serious question, right? Is it acceptable to me? Come on,” Biden told a reporter who described the scenes and asked if they were acceptable. “That’s why we’re going to be moving a thousand of those kids out quickly.”

“That’s why I’ve been working from the moment this started to happen to find additional access for children,” Biden added. “That is totally unacceptable.”

Biden also committed to transparency with respect to the situation at the border as his administration has come under growing pressure to increase access for journalists and immigration advocates.

“You’ll have full access to everything once we get things moving,” Biden said, responding later that he didn’t know when journalists would have full access.