ABC’s Jonathan Karl said on Wednesday’s broadcast of “The View” that the crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border went back further than just former President Donald Trump.
Karl argued that, while some of the dynamics had changed due to differing policies, the overall problem at the border had been present during the tenure of former President Barack Obama as well. (RELATED: ‘Catastrophic’ — Border Democrats Are Starting To Speak Up About Biden’s Immigration Policies)
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Meghan McCain introduced the topic, noting President Joe Biden’s administration had told migrants not to come until they were able to restructure the system in a way that would ensure a safer and more timely process.
“Republicans say that this administration should have anticipated the surge. Democrats are upset because the president ran on doing better for these children. What options does the Biden administration have for fixing this problem?” McCain asked.
“It’s a mess. It’s been a mess for a long time,” Karl replied. “It wasn’t just Donald Trump’s policies that created a crisis on the border. I remember covering it in the early days of the Obama Administration. We had something very similar unfolding.”
Karl drew a distinction over former President Trump’s “zero tolerance” policy, noting family separation was less of an issue under Obama and now Biden because their administrations saw much larger numbers of children crossing the border without a parent or guardian at all.
“What we saw happening under the Trump Administration is children being separated from their guardians, from their parents, from the adults they came over with. Now we’re seeing a surge of unaccompanied minors, children coming up on their own, not being separated by the U.S. Government,” Karl continued. “It’s a mess. Biden signaled very clearly he was going to treat people coming over the border illegally more humanely. And the downside of that very understandable policy is it encourages more people to say they’ll come up because they’ll be treated more humanely.”