Jennifer Rene Psaki and Alejandro Nicholas Mayorkas

“ Well, actually, the Trump administration expelled children to Mexico, and we are not expelling young children. We are not apprehending a nine-year-old child who’s come alone, who has traversed Mexico, whose parents — whose loving parents had sent that child alone. ”

“ But the guidelines from our health experts, which is what we rely on, is that anyone — that every American should take whatever vaccine they have access to in their pharmacy, at their health provider, at their community center, at the mass vaccination site, whatever it may be. ”

“ No planning had been done to protect the frontline personnel of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection and other frontline personnel that address the needs of individuals coming to our border. Contracts had been entered that were unlawful or against the interests of the United States Department of Justice. And that’s just the tip of it.
And I must tell you that it pains me profoundly to say this today, on March 1st, the 18th anniversary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
It takes time to rebuild an entire system and to process individuals at the border in a safe and just way. ”

“ But what the clear advice from our health and medical team is — and they’ve looked closely at all of the questions you’ve raised, all important ones — is that if you have access — for the American people: If you have — whatever vaccine you have access to, you should take that vaccine. ”

“ Well, the President — President Biden just decisively beat Donald Trump a few months ago. That’s why we’re all here having so much fun together in here. And — but his focus, and I think one of the ways that he convinces foreign allies and partners that America is back and we want a seat at the table, is by keeping his focus on his commitments he made on the campaign trail, which is: building the economy back better, bringing an end to the pandemic, rebuilding our relationships around the world, and not focusing time and energy and effort on a political campaign. ”

“ There are also websites in many states that provide access and provide guideline — or guidance for people looking for where they can get a vaccine and access. So that is true in different states across the country as well.But one of the things we’ve also found — and the prism at which we’re looking at this through — is that it’s not just about people being able to go on websites; people also don’t all have access to the Internet, including many people who are in communities where there’s higher level of vaccine hesitancy or rural communities. ”

“ As I’ve noted in here before, the President is committed to moving forward on the rest of his Build Back Better agenda, and we’re going to wait until we’re through the American Rescue Plan and that is signed into law, direct checks are going out to the American people, more money to get vaccines into arms, schools are starting to reopen with money.So that’s our focus now, but he believes that we can invest in areas like infrastructure and do that in a way that creates good-paying green jobs that are good-paying union jobs. ”

“ The First Lady has driven us to action through her personal commitment to this moral imperative. And that moral imperative is to reunite the families and restore them to the fullest capacity that we, as the United States government, can do. ”

“ And we have emphasized time and time again, we want to keep them safe, we want to treat them with humanity. They are not guaranteed to stay in the United States; they still go through the processing. We just don’t want to send them back — and the consideration of whether they can stay here through what is possible through our laws.It is still a difficult time. It’s a difficult journey. We are not encouraging people to come, but we also believe, differently from the past administration, that we are not going to turn away kids who are under 18. ”

“ That is especially true when we’re in the midst of the pandemic and are obligated, of course, to adhere to the restrictions and procedures that have been promulgated by the CDC to ensure public safety, including the safety of the individuals who arrive at our border. It takes time to build out of the depths of cruelty that the administration before us established. ”

“ If there are state, local governments, hospital systems who are having real problems with their websites and their implementation of vaccine registration systems, is the federal government offering assistance — technical contractor support, maybe using the Defense Production Act, to require a federal contractor in the technology space to help them out? ”

“ The House is set to vote on the John Lewis Voting Rights Act that is running headlong into a Senate filibuster. Does the President support nixing the filibuster as a means of passing voting rights? And if not, how is he going to leverage his political capital to make sure that this Democratic priority becomes law? MS. PSAKI: Well, first, the President is committed to protecting the fundamental right to vote and making easier for all eligible Americans to vote. His campaign was about fighting for democracy, and we’re going to continue to fight for democracy in the White House. ”

“ Well, one of the steps that you could certainly advocate for is the — or any of these folks could advocate for is the signing of the American Rescue Plan, which has $160 billion in it to help ensure schools can make the changes to their facilities, can hire enough teachers so that they can have socially distant kids in classrooms, so that they can have enough bus drivers. ”

“ We’re not quite there yet in terms of laying out his exact agenda. Obviously there are global objectives — getting the pandemic under control; working together to get our economy up and going again, which is something that the United States is obviously grappling with, but many countries around the world are grappling with. ”

“ Later today, President Biden will deliver remarks on the status of our COVID-19 response, and he will announce an unprecedented, historic step: The two largest healthcare and pharmaceutical companies, Merck and Johnson & Johnson — usually competitors — are coming together to expand production of the vaccine — Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine drug substance, as well as increase its fill-finish capacity. They will enter into a historic manufacturing partnership to expand that, I should say. ”

“ Well, I don’t think anyone runs for President or is elected if they have a thin skin. And, certainly, any action you take on an issue like global diplomacy or an issue where there’s a complicated relationship — I think he fully expected there might be some criticism.But his objective, his role as President of the United States and as Commander-in-Chief of the country is to act in the national interest of the United States, and that’s exactly what he’s doing in this relati- — in this case — that he’s acting on the advice of his national security team. ”

“ And so we’ve also taken a number of steps — call centers, proactive outreach to communities from health centers — to get people to come and take the vaccine, because a website is not going to be the silver bullet that solves everything. ”

“ So, yesterday, former President Trump suggested he might run again, meaning he will be back in 2024. You said the White House is not paying attention to President Trump — former President Trump, but how do you think foreign leaders are looking at this? Because this is one of the reasons foreign allies still have doubts, and many — if they can trust the U.S. again. So how do you also think President Biden can convince global allies that they can trust the United States and reclaim U.S. leadership? ”

“ Every day that goes by — some kids are in school year round; have been, for example, in Nebraska. Kids have been in the schools since day one, back in August. In other states, strictly virtually. The education gap is widening; no doubt about that. When fall rolls around, if some schools are still not in person, full time, will the President accept that, or will he have a firm deadline in mind that gets kids back in the classroom? MS. PSAKI: Well, the President wants schools to be back in the classroom. ”

“ We are dedicated to achieving and, quite frankly, are working around the clock to replace the cruelty of the past administration with an orderly, humane, and safe immigration process. It is hard, and it will take time. ”

“ Also today, the Biden-Harris administration is announcing key conclusions from an intelligence community assessment on the poisoning of Aleksey Navalny, as well as measures to hold Russia accountable for this action.
The intelligence community assesses with “high confidence” that officers of Russia’s Federal Security Service used a nerve agent to poison Russian opposition leader Aleksey Navalny on August 20, 2020. The use of any chemical weapon directly violates international legal obligations and norms of civilized conduct. ”

“ Our overarching goal is, of course, to be as humane as the law provides, to be as restorative as the law enables us to be to bring justice to these families.One of the tasks of the Reunification Task Force will be, of course, in addition to reuniting those families — which, of course, is the most acute urgency — to also take a look at the system and ensure — to your very important question, to ensure that it does not happen again. ”

“ It is a challenge. We have more than 7,000 unaccompanied kids who have come into the United States, and that is certainly a lot of children that we are trying to treat humanely and safely and process through the system as quickly as we can. That’s — that’s not easy. That is a challenge.Certainly, the President receives briefings and regular updates from his team. And, you know, we typically don’t confirm those publicly, but he is — he is briefed regularly by his team, the Domestic Policy Council, and other members of his policy team. ”

“ I mean, our objective, of course, is to ensure as many Americans as possible are vaccinated as quickly as possible. And we will have enough vaccines to vaccinate — ensure every American has a vaccine by the end of July, if not sooner — likely sooner.So our — at a certain point, we’re going to reach — we will have more vaccines than there are people who want to take them. ”

“ The Border Patrol is only a pass-through. We are obligated to turn that child over to the Department of Health and Human Services within 72 hours. We are a pass-through. And then, Health and Human Services — or HHS, of course, that is commonly referred to — addresses the needs of that child as HHS is identifying and vetting sponsors in — whose trust the child can be placed while the child is in immigration proceedings. ”

“ We’re seeing a couple of questions on COVID. We’re seeing reports out of Kansas and Missouri that small rural areas are receiving large quantities of doses and that larger urban areas are receiving smaller shipments of doses relative to their populations. So I’m wondering if the White House is satisfied that local — state and local governments are doing what they need to do in terms of ensuring vaccine equity. ”

“ Interior announced yesterday it’s giving out more than $260 million in grants to help coal production states create green energy jobs. Is the White House launching any programs to help those states transition to fossil fuel workers into green tech, or are they leaving that up to the governors? ”

“ That’s why he proposed making sure the very richest Americans pay the same rate on the income from their wealth that a worker pays, as well as closing loopholes that allow them to entirely escape tax.Obviously, our focus is on the American Rescue Plan. Addressing the inequities in the tax code is something he talked about as part of his Build Back Better agenda, and it’s something he remains committed to. He has a lot of respect for Senator Warren and is aligned on the goal of ensuring the ultra-wealthy and big corporations finally pay their fair share. ”

“ Working very closely with the Mexican government and international organizations in Mexico, we have developed a virtual platform that enables individuals with active cases in the “Remain in Mexico” program to actually register for relief using their phones. The international organizations then work with those individuals to test them, process their cases, and transport them safely and, according to a defined schedule, to the port of entry where we are awaiting them and can process them through the port of entry successfully. ”