President Joe Biden on Thursday said that he wanted to address the “fundamental reasons” families have been coming to the U.S. from countries such as Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador to seek asylum.
In a news conference in the East Room, ABC news correspondent Cecilia Vega recounted a recent reporting trip to the border, where she met a 9-year-old boy who had walked to the U.S.-Mexico border from Honduras by himself. Biden called this “a desperate act to have to take,” adding, “the circumstances must be horrible. So we can do something about that.” Biden suggested that in cases such as the one Vega described, where she said a parent was able to be reached in the child’s home country, there’s an “overwhelming reason” a child would be put on a plane and flown back to their parents rather than be allowed to stay in the U.S. The president also called the conditions in migrant facilities such as the one in Donna, Texas, “totally unacceptable” and said his administration was working to find additional housing for children.
Biden addressed the nation in his first news conference since becoming president on Thursday, March 25 at the White House.
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