WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration is scrambling to manage a growing humanitarian and political challenge at the U.S.-Mexico border that threatens to overshadow its ambitious legislative agenda.
Administration officials say Biden inherited an untenable situation that resulted from what they say was President Donald Trump’s undermining and weakening of the immigration system. But as Congress pivots to immigration legislation, stories of unaccompanied minors and families trying to cross the border have begun to dominate the headlines, distracting from the White House’s efforts to promote the $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill.
The White House dispatched Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to four news shows in an effort to stress that it was working to get things under control.
