Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas traveled to the U.S.-Mexico border on Friday with a group of bipartisan senators. Normally, on this trip, a cabinet secretary and lawmakers would be accompanied by journalists or a member of the White House press pool to send notes to newsrooms.
But on this trip, the Biden administration prevented this from happening.
This week, reporters repeatedly pointed out the lack of access. Several live shots from the border have ended with a journalist pointing out that officials denied access to facilities where migrant children were being held.
In a statement Thursday, the executive director of the Digital News Radio Foundation, Dan Shelley, criticized the Biden administration for breaking its promise of transparency. “The president promised things would be different,” Shelley said. “It turns out he was right, but in this case it wasn’t what we expected. The Trump administration allowed journalists into juvenile detention centers.”
Shelley urged Mayorkas to allow “immediate” access by journalists to border patrol processing facilities and officials.
“At a time when the southern border of the United States is suffering from a historic wave of migrants, it is more important than ever that journalists be allowed the necessary access to report accurately and independently of the Border Patrol’s response to the largest arrival. of migrants and the well-being of those housed at border patrol facilities, ”he said.
The Trump administration allowed access to the facility and provided photographs to the press. But it was for a very different reason, as pointed out by Jacob Soboroff of NBC.
“The Trump administration let us in. And they let us in because they wanted to explain to us and show us the cruelty of the separation policy.”
Said Soboroff in an airtime appearance on Thursday. “They wanted everyone to see it. Now it’s up to the Biden administration to open the doors so we can fully tell the story not only where they want to go, but why they want to go to this place and show ourselves to the American public. “.
John Moore, special correspondent for Getty Images
he asked on Twitter on Friday U.S. Customs and Border Protection “to stop blocking media access to its border operations.”
“I’ve photographed CBP under Bush, Obama and Trump, but now there’s zero access to the media,” Moore said.
Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy was one of the lawmakers who traveled to the border Friday. After visiting a processing facility, Murphy
he tweeted a description of what he saw: “Hundreds of children packed in large open rooms. In one corner, I fought back tears as a 13-year-old girl sobbed uncontrollably explaining through a translator the terror she had, having been separated from her grandmother and her parents. “
After years of scandalizing the media, some Republicans and right-wing media have suddenly become advocates for the press. Senator Ted Cruz tweeted that he found it “outrageous and unacceptable” that there was no “press” and “no cameras” with Mayorkas.
“Next week, I will bring 15 senators to the border. DHS said NO to our request to bring media,” Cruz said. “I will continue to fight for access to the press so that all Americans can see this crisis for themselves!”
Biden administration response
White House press secretary Jen Psaki responded Friday to a CNN Business investigation into the lack of access to the border by referring to comments she made earlier in the week.
Psaki said Thursday that media visits for facilities where there were children had not been allowed due to Covid-19 restrictions. But, he said, the administration remains “committed to transparency and we are considering possible options and look forward to having an update soon.”
In a comment Wednesday to Fox’s Kristin Fisher, who asked if the White House had instructed border agents not to make routes, Psaki said, “I think we’ve seen, seeing a series of reports that you all do, The border patrol officials who are cited there, who appear there, and we certainly support it in the White House. “
But as Washington Post media columnist Erik Wemple joked in a Friday column about the lack of access to the border press, “Officials are being cited! So why complain? “
