Politics - News Analysis

Jared Kushner Doesn’t Want to Talk About No Stinkin’ Locked Up Migrant Kids, ‘That’s an Unfair Question!’

CNN’s Wolf Blitzer pressed White House senior adviser Jared Kushner over the growing outrage about Donald Trump’s border detention policy, which has resulted in widespread reports of families and children suffering from inhumane and unsanitary conditions: “Why isn’t the Trump Administration doing more to protect the lives of kids?”

“I don’t think that’s a fair question, Wolf,” Kushner responded. “The president has been very clear about the fact that it’s a very dangerous journey to cross the border. He is trying to get people to cross legally and come into this country in a legal way. Our Border Patrol agents who do an amazing job for this country, trying to keep all of us safe, are totally overwhelmed.”

Kushner, who is also a chief White House aide tasked with solving Middle East peace, the opioid addiction epidemic, reinventing government, reforming veteran healthcare, and also immigration, then claimed the White House’s get-tough immigration approach is working.

“The numbers we’ve seen have been extraordinary,” Kushner said. “A lot of people want to come. Over the last months we’ve put measures in place and we’re starting to see those numbers go down thanks to the president’s leadership and the deal we made with Mexico.”

In fact, US-Mexico border apprehensions show no signs of slowing down, having risen month after month since last December, according to data from Customs and Border Protection. At the beginning of 2019, CBP arrested just under 50,000 undocumented aliens a month crossing into the US from Mexico. By May, that number had jumped by more than 177 percent, to roughly 133,000 apprehensions a month. CBP has not released any data yet on the impact of the new measures Mexico agreed to just two weeks ago.

When Blitzer pushed back, asking if the administration shouldn’t at least be able to provide every immigrant family or child basic items like soap, toothpaste, clean water, and bathing facilities at border detention camps, Kushner agreed.

“I know Border Patrol is doing the best they can to accommodate,” Kushner said. “They were not set up to deal with the unusual flows they’re getting right now. They’ve asked Congress for more resources to be able to do the job in the way that the president wants them to do it, which is humaneely. They’re doing their best. We’re working hard with them every day to try to improve the situation.”

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