Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas traveled to the US-Mexico border on Friday with a group of bipartisan senators. Normally, on such a trip, a cabinet secretary and lawmakers would be accompanied by reporters or a member of the White House press team to send notes to newsrooms.
But on this trip, the Biden government blocked that from happening.
The lack of access was repeatedly pointed out by journalists this week. A series of live shots from the border ended with a reporter pointing out that the authorities denied access to facilities that keep migrant children.
In a statement on Thursday, the executive director of the Radio Television Digital News Foundation, Dan Shelley, criticized the Biden government for failing in its promise of transparency. “The president promised that things would be different,” said Shelley. “It turns out that he was right, but in this case, not in the way we expected.
Shelley urged Mayorkas to “immediately” allow journalists to access processing facilities and Border Patrol officials.
“At a time when the southern border of the United States is experiencing a historic increase in migrants, it is more important than ever that journalists have the necessary access to accurately and independently report the Border Patrol’s response to increased arrival of migrants and the well-being of people housed in the Border Patrol facilities, “he said.
The Trump administration allowed access to the premises and provided photos to the press. But it was for a very different reason, as Jacob Soboroff of NBC pointed out.
“The Trump administration let us in. And they let us in because they wanted to explain and show us the cruelty of the separation policy,”
Soboroff said in an airborne appearance Thursday. “They wanted everyone to see this. Now it’s the Biden government’s turn to open the door so we can tell the story not just where they want to go, but why they want to go to that place and show ourselves to the American public.”
Getty Images special correspondent John Moore
on Twitter Friday asked US Customs and Border Protection “to stop blocking media access to your border operations.”
“I photographed CBP under Bush, Obama and Trump, but now – zero access is granted to the media,” said Moore.
Democratic Senator Chris Murphy was one of the lawmakers who traveled to the border on Friday. After visiting a processing facility, Murphy
tweeted a description of what he saw: “Hundreds of children huddled in large open rooms. In one corner, I fought back tears as a 13-year-old girl sobbed uncontrollably explaining through a translator how terrified she was of being separated from her grandmother. and without her parents. “
After years of criticizing the media, some Republicans and the right-wing media suddenly became defenders of the press. Senator Ted Cruz tweeted that he found it “outrageous and unacceptable” that there was “no press” and “no camera” with the Mayorkas.
“Next week, I am bringing 15 senators to the border. DHS said NO to our request to bring the media,” said Cruz. “I will continue to fight for access to the press so that all Americans can see this crisis for themselves!”
Management response from Biden
White House press secretary Jen Psaki responded on Friday to a CNN Business inquiry into the lack of access at the border, referring to comments she made earlier in the week.
Psaki said on Thursday that media visits to the facility with children were not allowed due to Covid-19 restrictions. But, she said, the government remains “committed to transparency and we are considering potential options and we hope to have an update on this soon.”
In a comment on Wednesday to Fox’s Kristin Fisher, who asked if the White House had instructed border agents not to hitchhike, Psaki said, “I think we’ve seen, looking at a series of reports that you all do, a series of Border Patrol Officers who are named on them, who appear on them, and certainly at the White House we support that. “
But, as Washington Post media columnist Erik Wemple joked in a Friday column about the lack of press access at the border: “Officials are quoted! Well, then why complain? Because solid border coverage requires more than just a quote here and there. “
