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Pressure Increases as Migrant Shelters Become Overcrowded

Susan Rice, Biden’s domestic policy adviser, believes staffers are doing an unacceptably slow job of releasing children to sponsors

Deanna Garcia

Apr 16, 2021

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President Joe Biden’s aides are facing both internal and external pressure as they try to shelter thousands of unaccompanied migrant children, with more arriving every day. Three officials said Susan Rice, Biden’s domestic policy adviser, has been hard on Health and Human Services staffers because she believes they are doing an unacceptably slow job of releasing children to sponsors. Shelter systems are overcrowded, forcing children to stay in packed border holding stations for far longer than is legally allowed. “It’s tense,” said Mark Weber, an HHS spokesman. “But it’s a healthy tension with high-powered folks aligned around the mission of making sure these kids are well-taken care of.” Reuters 

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Pelosi Tells Biden to Accept More Refugees

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) nudged Biden on Thursday to increase the amount of refugees being accepted into the U.S. She said the U.S. has a responsibility to welcome foreigners facing danger at home. “We have a moral responsibility in the world — as every other country does, too — to receive refugees who have a well-founded fear of persecution or harm [if they] return to their own country,” Pelosi told reporters at the Capitol. Back in February, Biden vowed to quickly enhance the “badly damaged” refugee resettlement program. The current refugee cap is at 15,000, the lowest it’s ever been since the Refugee Act in 1980. Biden promised to raise the number to 125,000 at the beginning of the fiscal year on Oct. 1. The Hill 

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