Pelosi Claims Biden Administration Has Border Situation “Under Control”

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., expressed confidence in President Biden's handling of the surge of migrants at the Southern border, saying he's got it "under control."

Pelosi said Biden is approaching the migrants, especially unaccompanied minors, in a more "humane" way than former President Donald Trump, and the transition will take some time.

"The Biden administration has this under control," Pelosi said Friday during her weekly news conference at the Capitol. "It is change and it will take some time, but it is values-based, humanitarian ... [and] pragmatic with a plan to get things done."

Republicans have been pummelling Biden in recent weeks for the surge of migrants that have flocked to the border, and they've blamed the Democrat's rhetoric and the canceling of Trump's immigration policies for the uptick.

Biden's Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Tuesday said that the U.S. is on track to encounter more migrants than it has in the last 20 years as he described the border surge as "difficult."

On Wednesday, NBC News reported the Biden administration has imposed what amounts to a media blackout at the southwest border amid a worsening crisis.

Border Patrol agents, including sector chiefs and press officers, are under an unofficial gag order not to answer questions from the press, according to four current and two former Customs and Border Protection officials who spoke to NBC News on condition of anonymity.

Federal officials along the border, they say, have been verbally instructed—there is no official memo, no paper-trail—to deny all press requests for ride-alongs and refer all media inquiries, even from local reporters, to Washington. Officials responsible for gathering data about the number of illegal immigrants in federal custody, they say, have been told not to share that information with anyone to prevent possible leaks.

The blackout comes as the Biden administration continues to deny there’s a crisis at the border, even as the number of migrant children detained by CBP soars, overwhelming federal facilities ill-equipped to house and care for minors. As of Sunday, CBP had more than 4,200 minors in custody along the border, a record.

The Department of Homeland Security has not conducted any media tours of several hastily opened shelters for minors, included one in Donna, Texas, that was 729 percent over capacity earlier this month. Lawyers who have been inside these facilities and interviewed migrant children housed there report there is not enough food, bed space, or showers. Many of these minors are being held for much longer than allowed under federal law.

This stands in stark contrast to the Trump administration, which gave press access to these facilities during its controversial family separation policy in June 2018. Likewise, CBP routinely approved press requests for ride-alongs with Border Patrol agents during the Trump administration. But there has not been “a single one since January 20,” when Biden was inaugurated, one federal official told NBC News.

The media blackout at the border also stands in stark contrast to the Biden administration’s empty rhetoric about transparency. DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, who continues to deny there is a crisis, earlier this month pledged to be transparent with the media on immigration issues but has since denied media access to migrant processing centers, including embedded reporters with congressional delegations that visited the border this week.

Earlier this week, Mayorkas said the United States is on pace to see the largest number of illegal border crossings in 20 years. In February, Border Patrol arrested nearly 97,000 people along the southwest border, and will likely arrest more than 100,000 in March.

Since reporters aren’t allowed to ask Border Patrol or CBP press officers any questions, one of the only places reporters can get information from federal officials is in White House press briefings, where anyone who does ask a question is denigrated by Press Secretary Jen Psaki.

When Fox’s Kristin Fisher asked Psaki on Wednesday if there was a limit to the number of unaccompanied minors that would be allowed into the country—an entirely fair question, given that on average 565 minors are being apprehended at the border every day—Psaki replied, “Should we send some kids who are 10 back at a certain point? Is that what you’re asking me?”