Pelosi Rips GOP for Border 'Diversion,' Says Biden Has Situation 'Under Control'

Democrats who long blistered the Trump administration's hard line immigration policies are suddenly in a tough political bind but Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Friday that the "Biden administration has this under control."

The Biden administration is responding to a wave of children crossing the southern border into the U.S. with some of the very tactics that evoked moral outrage from Democrats when they were embraced by former President Donald Trump.

That includes accommodating children in hastily improvised lockups.

"I think it's important to know that the difference between the attitude toward the people and the children is so different in just these two months versus what happened in the past four years," Pelosi said.

Democrats have little appetite to condemn President Joe Biden in the same terms as Trump. Biden, after all, is pushing for a massive immigration overhaul and has spoken of compassion toward migrants. But in taking a softer stance, Democrats risk being branded by the GOP as hypocrites.

Trump expanded and fortified border walls while championing "zero tolerance" policies that made it more difficult to seek U.S. asylum and briefly even separated immigrant parents and children.

Biden has used executive actions to begin rolling back much of that, but a sweeping plan he announced his first day in office to remake the immigration system has stalled in Congress.

Instead, the Democratic-controlled House passed two smaller-scale bills Thursday that offer a process to obtain U.S. citizenship for immigrants brought to the country illegally as children and extend legal status to farm workers and their families.

Biden defenders note that what's happening on the border now is not the same as during the Trump years. Their criticisms of the Trump administration focused on children separated from their parents and held in Border Patrol facilities featuring cells partitioned with chain-link fencing.

Further, the Biden administration continues to rapidly send back most single adults and families whom federal agents stop at the border under a public health order issued by Trump at the start of the coronavirus pandemic. It only is allowing teens and children on their own to stay - at least temporarily - which has helped cause their ranks to spike.

Still, such nuance is easily lost in the larger political fight. And Republicans, looking to hit back after Biden successfully delivered on his promised $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package, have been quick to pounce.

Democrats counter by alleging the actual hypocrisy is among Republicans, who are now feigning concern over immigrant children after years of cheering tougher Trump policies. They say part of the surge has been caused by immigrants who were stuck at the border waiting to advance legitimate asylum claims the Trump administration failed to process.

Pelosi noted Friday that "in the spring more people do come, so there will be more, as there are now." But she said the Biden administration has plans to ensure immigrants are handled "in a much more humane way than before."

Also, during the Speakers weekly press conference Pelosi addressed the killings in Atlanta that come after a spike of anti-Asian violence nationally. A white gunman killed eight people, most of them Asian American women, in three metro-Atlanta area massage businesses.

Pelosi addressed questions on normalcy and security at the U.S. Capitol, saying "the peripheral the outer fence is going to start to come down." Adding the coronavirus is the "villain," "unless everyone is vaccinated. Mask wearing, honor separation and the rest. We will still be at the mercy of that."

Subscribe to our YouTube channel

Bloomberg Quicktake brings you live global news and original shows spanning business, technology, politics and culture. Make sense of the stories changing your business and your world.

To watch complete coverage on Bloomberg Quicktake 24/7, visit or watch on Apple TV, Roku, Samsung Smart TV, Fire TV and Android TV on the Bloomberg app.

Have a story to tell? Fill out this survey for a chance to have it featured on Bloomberg Quicktake

Connect with us on…

Breaking News on YouTube