MSNBC anchor Ayman Mohyeldin said Saturday that climate change has played a noticable factor in the overwhelming surge of migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border.
Reporting from Guatemala, Mohyeldin told viewers the deep structural and economic problems in the country are "compounded" by both the coronavirus pandemic and climate change.
Climate change, he said, is "making the farmland and agricultural base ... that much harder to sustain the economic needs of a country that has 17 million people." So, he concluded, thousands are flocking to the U.S.
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Mohyeldin expanded on that argument on his Twitter page, citing natural disasters as one of the culprits for the mass migration.
Thousands of unaccompanied minors are crowding holding facilities at the border amid a record migrant surge. Border Patrol agents reported encountering 170,000 migrants along tthe Mexican border in March, a 20-year high.
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Mohyeldin says he "sees" and understands why the Biden administration is trying to get more resources to help Guatemalans. But Republican lawmakers have blamed the crisis on President Biden’s decision to reverse several Trump administration immigration policies, such as the Remain in Mexico measure, which required asylum seekers to wait in Mexico until it was their turn in U.S. immigration court.
Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan, R., has fumed that the current administration initially denied media access in border facilities. That's because Biden, Jordan alleged, does not "want the American people to know what's going on."
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Biden has yet to visit the border to assess the situation for himself, yet has tapped Vice President Kamala Harris as his border czar. Critics have observed she's been mostly silent on her new role, failing to hold a press conference since the appointment.