Did Biden tell the truth about the crisis at the border? Sometimes yes, sometimes not so much

Joen Biden held his first press conference as president on Thursday after more than two months in the White House.

For almost an hour he answered 45 questions from a dozen reporters.

He spoke of taxes, vaccines against the coronavirus, infrastructure, relations with China, reforms in Congress, his re-election plans for 2024 ... and immigration, of course.

Biden received numerous questions about migrant families and minors who are crossing the border alone from Mexico, and the strategy of his government to serve them.

We checked what he said about immigration and found that some of his statements are incorrect. 

"We are sending back the vast majority of the families that arrive"

Biden told reporters that his Administration has expelled most of the families who crossed the border without permission.

But, the available data does not support this claim, which we consider to be

false

.

During at least February, of the 19,000 families - they may include a child and at least one parent - that the Border Patrol intercepted, 7,900 were evicted.

That is, six out of 10 families that border officials intercepted stayed in the United States, according to federal data. 

[A 9-year-old migrant girl rescued by the Border Patrol dies on an island in the Rio Grande]

Biden also said that "the vast majority of people who come to the border and cross are returned," referring to asylum seekers.

That is true, according to federal data.

90% of lone adults intercepted by the Border Patrol in February were expelled under Title 42, the measure approved a year ago by the Donald Trump Administration to deny immigrants entry into the country due to the risk of the coronavirus pandemic.

Migrants risk crossing the Darien jungle: "One does it because there is no other option"

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"Nothing has changed" 

Biden wanted to downplay the number of immigrants, especially single children, who are arriving at the border since he took office in January: “Nothing has changed.

So many people came -28% increase of children at the border in my Administration;

31% in the last year- in 2019, before the pandemic, in the Trump Administration ”.

Here the president also

gave a

false

figure

.

The increase in single minors who crossed the border is higher than Biden said.

Between January and February that number increased 61%, from 5,858 to almost 10,000, according to federal figures. 

[Biden says he will not let children "starve" at the border]

The data that Biden cited for 2019 is correct.

That year, between January and February, the number of lone children intercepted by the Border Patrol increased 31%.

And last year, just before the pandemic, that increase was just 13%.

These figures make a notable difference with what is happening in 2021.

Did Trump eliminate aid to prevent migration from Central America?

The president blamed his predecessor for cutting aid to Central American countries that Congress approved during the Obama administration, and that would help prevent immigration from that region.

“The way to deal with this problem, and I started to deal with it when I was vice president putting together a bipartisan plan of more than $ 700 million to address the root causes of why people are leaving.

What did Trump do?

Eliminated that funding.

He didn't use it, ”Biden said. 

The flow of migrants overflows to Ciudad Juárez on the border between Mexico and the United States

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This statement is

misleading

.

While it is true Trump announced in March 2019 that he would cut some 700 million in annual aid to El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala, his Administration rectified a few months later and decided to restore most of the funds.

At the time, the State Department announced that it would continue with $ 432 million in projects and grants that had been previously approved. 

The reasons for Central American migration

Biden assured that the majority of Central Americans who decide to emigrate do so due to the difficult circumstances they live in their countries: “It is due to earthquakes, floods.

It is for lack of food.

It's because of gang violence.

It is for a great variety of things ”. 

[The drama on the border reflected in the children's faces]

This statement is true

and various studies support it.

"Although the reasons vary by individual, socioeconomic difficulties and security conditions — exacerbated by natural disasters and poor governance — appear to be the most important drivers of the current mixed migratory flow," says a report by the Congressional Research Service ( CRS, June 2019. 

According to the latest World Risk Index, prepared by an alliance of German development organizations, El Salvador and Honduras are among the 20 countries most at risk from natural disasters, due to their exposure to natural phenomena and the limited response capacity they have. have. 

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“Extreme natural events, such as floods or storms, increase the probability of forced migration.

According to current information, global warming and the resulting changes in environmental factors and extreme weather conditions also lead to complex migratory movements, ”says the 2020 report, which focused on the effects of natural disasters on global migration.

[Trump claims he gave Biden "the safest border in history."

But it's true?]

A recent article by Charles T. Call, a researcher for the Latin America Initiative in the Brookings Foreign Policy program, points to inequality, corruption, gang violence, and the effect of Hurricanes Eta and Iota -on the case of Honduras- as the main causes of current migration from the Northern Triangle.