White House press secretary Jen Psaki on Thursday night said she expects President Biden’s nominee for Department of Homeland Security to head a task force dedicated to reunited families that have been separated at the border.
During an interview with MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow, the host asked Psaki about recent reports that both first lady Jill Biden and Alejandro Mayorkas would play a part in the effort to reunite families separated at the U.S.-Mexico border.
Biden, while on the campaign trail, has called the separation of families at the border during the Trump administration a “moral failing,” and has vowed to institute a task force dedicated to reuniting children and parents.
“I would expect that that … Mayorkas, who we expect will be confirmed soon, will be playing a prominent role leading this effort, overseeing it, of course, out of the Department of Homeland Security, and we’ll have more to share soon about the members of the task force and how it will work as we look ahead to address this really horrific challenge,” Psaki told Maddow.
Migrant children who came with their parents to the U.S. southern border starting in April 2018 were separated after the Trump administration implemented a “zero-tolerance” policy in which adults were criminally charged.
The policy lead to more than 3,000 migrant family separations, according to a report from NBC News. Many of these families have yet to be reunited.
Trump eventually ended the policy during his tenure.
The Biden administration officially rescinded the “zero-tolerance policy” earlier this week, though the move was largely symbolic.
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) had previously placed a roadblock in Mayorkas’s confirmation in the Senate, expressing concerns about his planned immigration policies.
Other Senate Republicans, including Sen. Chuck Grassley (Iowa), have expressed concerns about a 2015 inspector general report indicating he intervened in some Citizenship and Immigration Services on behalf of Democrats during his tenure there.
However, Mayorkas’s confirmation cleared a procedural hurdle with some Republican support Thursday, with the Senate voting 55-42 to advance the nomination. Mayorkas’s formal confirmation vote is set for Monday.
Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) blasted the hold Thursday, saying saying “because of the tactics of some Republican members, particularly the junior senator from Missouri, Mr. Mayorkas’s nomination is being needlessly stalled.”