Homeland Security Secretary Alexander Mayorkas spoke with Fox News host Chris Wallace on Sunday about the Biden administration restricting media access to federal facilities where thousands of migrant children remain after cross the border.
Taking note of President Biden’s vote to keep a White House transparent, the host of “Fox News Sunday” asked why journalists do not have access to Customs and Border Patrol housing facilities, even during Mayorkas’ visit to the border on Friday.
The secretary began his response by saying “we are in the middle of a pandemic.” (…)
“We are focused on our operations, on the execution of our operations, on a crowded border patrol facility where there are hundreds of vulnerable migrant children,” Mayorkas said.
“We are working to provide images so that the American public can see the border patrol stations,” he continued.
But Wallace said this seems “an excuse” and noted that “there is a safe condition” in which a pool journalist and a camera crew could enter one of the facilities and record the children, even all in a coronavirus pandemic.
“We are working to provide access,” Mayorkas replied.
“And certainly journalists can see the facilities of the Department of Health and Human Services where children are protected for a longer period of time,” he added.