‘I guess Dr Seuss didn’t work’: Nancy Pelosi dismisses GOP border concerns as political distraction

Biden administration has struggled to accommodate unaccompanied migrant children who’ve crossed into the US

Speaker Nancy Pelosi has dismissed Republican concerns over the recent surge in migrants arriving at the US-Mexico border as a bad-faith political distraction, likening the GOP’s line of attack to its recent outrage that the publishers of Dr Seuss books had decided to stop selling certain titles with racist images.

“Well I guess their Dr Seuss approach didn't work for them. So now they've had to change the subject,” Ms Pelosi said at her weekly Capitol Hill press conference on Thursday of the GOP’s criticism of Democrats’ immigration policy.

“We do not prioritize our values and how we can make a difference in the lives of the American people to be attuned to the bankruptcy of ideas that the Republicans have,” she said.

As examples of the House Democratic majority’s recent work, Ms Pelosi highlighted the landmark $1.9trn Covid relief legislation that is on its way to the White House for Joe Biden’s signature as well as the chamber’s passage on Thursday of a massive gun control package that faces a more onerous path in the Senate.

But while Democrats are eager to make the most of this window where they control both chambers of Congress and the presidency by passing transformative legislation in key liberal policy areas, the Biden administration’s growing challenges at the southern border threaten to undermine their victory tour on the Covid relief package.

The new Democratic White House has steadfastly refused to label the situation at the border a “crisis,” although it has admitted that the surge in unaccompanied children coming to the southern border has been “challenging” for federal agents and workers tasked with providing adequate shelter and resources for those children.

In a switch from the Trump administration, the Biden administration has adopted a policy of taking in unaccompanied children who have crossed the border into the US, saying it is the only “humane” response in difficult circumstances.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki reiterated on Tuesday that it’s “most important to explain the substantive policy of what’s happening, what the root causes are of why kids are coming, and what we’re trying to solve” at the border.

Earlier this week, the New York Times reported that more than 3,250 children who have crossed into the US without parents or guardians are currently in custody at the border. That’s more than three times the level from just two weeks ago, the Times reported on Tuesday.

Unaccompanied children who come to the border seeking refuge are transferred after three days to the care of the Department of Health and Human Services, which earlier this week was housing 8,100 such minors as they await processing and sponsorship.

While the administration has ordered Customs and Border Patrol agents to turn away families and adults crossing the border due to Covid precautions, Mr Biden’s stance towards unaccompanied children has been to accept them.

“That is a policy decision which we made because we felt it was the most humane approach to addressing what are very difficult circumstances in the region. And that means there are more children ... coming across the border,” Ms Psaki said on Tuesday.

Republicans have pilloried Mr Biden’s handling of the situation at the southern border, saying his campaign pledges to soften immigration policy has incentivised an influx of migrants.

“The cause of this emergency is not some mystery. Everyone knows what’s happened,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said last week, blaming Mr Biden for campaigning in 2020 on “weakening border security” and broadcasting “confusing mixed messages” to people thinking about coming here.

House Minority Whip Steve Scalise warned earlier this week that “there are super-spreader caravans coming across our southern border,” although the Biden administration has been turning away everyone except unaccompanied children due to the ongoing Covid pandemic, citing the authority of a World War II-era public health law.