Media top headlines December 20
In media news today, liberal pundits react to Manchin’s ‘no’ on Build Back Better, Nicholas Sandmann reaches a settlement with NBC after Covington Catholic controversy, and Kamala Harris’ interview with Charlamagne Tha God gets heated.
The Washington Post editorial board is blaming President Biden's "inconsistent policies" for the soaring migrant death toll amid the ongoing crisis at the southern U.S. border.
In a Saturday editorial, the board argued that the "incoherency" of Biden's border policy was represented in the highest recorded number of migrant deaths since the statistic first began being systematically tracked in 2014, blamed the administration for giving a "green light" to migrants to attempt the perilous journey from Central America, and implored his team to have a more "cogent" stance at the border.
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"Desperation south of the border with Mexico has long yielded a grisly toll: death in the desert and elsewhere along routes that migrants ply on their way north," the board wrote. "That toll soared in the past year to its highest point since 2014, when the carnage was first systematically documented. Its causes are multiple, but in part it represents an indictment of the incoherency of President Biden’s border policy."
It noted that in 2021, migrants attempting to make the dangerous journey to the border defied trends of previous years and continued working their way north into the summer months when temperatures can reach dangerous levels. According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, there were more than 200,000 encounters with migrants at the border in the month of July.
"Many would-be migrants took heart at the election of Mr. Biden, who was clear that he would adopt policies less gratuitously cruel than those of his predecessor. He did pivot to a more humane approach, but without also establishing orderly, controlled, predictable procedures governing admissions," the board wrote.
TEXAS, USA - SEPTEMBER 19: Migrants are seen at the Rio Grande near the Del Rio-Acuna Port of Entry in Del Rio, Texas, on September 18, 2021. (Photo by Charlie C. Peebles/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images) (nternational Bridge, whPhoto by Charlie C. Peebles/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
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It added that the Biden administration's failure to establish such procedures "yielded human and political costs," and listed various inconsistencies within its policies, such as warning migrants against making the journey, but then admitting those who didn't listen into the U.S. anyway once they arrived.
"The administration’s suite of inconsistent policies was received in Central America and other countries as a green light for migration, or at least a blinking yellow one. Illegal crossings spiked, and with them, the body count mounted," the board wrote, citing the International Organization for Migration’s Missing Migrants Project's reporting of 650 migrant deaths at the border in fiscal year 2021.
FILE - In this June 10, 2021, file photo, a migrant family from Brazil waits to be processed by U.S. Border Patrol agents after passing through a gap in the border wall from Mexico in Yuma, Ariz. (AP Photo/Eugene Garcia, File) (AP Photo/Eugene Garcia, File)
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It added that the number represented a 24-percent increase from 2019, the year of the previous pre-pandemic high, and a 58-percent increase from 2016, the deadliest year under the Obama administration.
"The factors that impel people to leave their homes in Central America and elsewhere remain potent: terrible living standards, exacerbated by covid-19; dysfunctional governance; daunting crime and violence; and now, natural disasters, often linked to climate change," the board wrote.
Central American migrants wait to be transported by the U.S. Border Patrol after crossing the Rio Grande river into the United States from Mexico in La Joya, Texas, U.S. April 27, 2021. REUTERS/Go Nakamura
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"Those will not be erased quickly. In the meantime, though, the administration needs a more cogent stance at the border. Failing that, still more lives will be lost," it added.