Biden Administration Will Use ‘Semi-Permanent, Soft-Sided’ Structures To House Migrant Children. Trump Was Blasted For ‘Tent Cities.’

President Joe Biden’s administration is reopening a facility to house migrant children that can accommodate up to 700.

The Department of Health and Human Services released a statement on Tuesday announcing the reopened facility, which it called a “temporary Influx Care Facility.”

“Initially, the Carrizo Springs ICF will accommodate approximately 700 children in hard-sided structures. Additional semi-permanent (soft-sided) capacity may be added if necessary, though ORR will always prioritize placing children in hard-sided structures over semi-permanent structures,” the statement said.

“Semi-permanent (soft-sided) capacity” is a euphemism for “tent.”

The New York Post reminded readers that the “Trump administration faced considerable criticism over its use of temporary shelters, also known as ‘tent cities,’ in towns across the southern border.”

Multiple outlets excoriated the Trump administration for the tents, reporting the facilities were a waste of money. NBC News reported in June 2018, “Separating migrant kids from their parents will cost the administration more than placing them in permanent structures or keeping them with their parents.”

The sustained criticism of the Trump administration began when a photo and article about kids being kept in cages was circulated on social media to claim then-President Donald Trump was heartless. The photo and the article were actually from 2014, when Barack Obama was president. Nevertheless, Democrats and their media supporters used the migrant facilities as a cudgel against the Trump administration, blasting it for separating kids from families.

The children were separated because they entered the country along with their parents, who were detained for the crime. Instead of sending the children to prison with their parents, the kids were sent to the temporary facilities, which quickly filled up when the economy began to improve.

The HHS’s Office of Refugee Resettlement also said in its statement that it “is mindful of these children’s vulnerability, and our priority is the safety and wellbeing of each child in our care. HHS anticipates the need to start placing children at Carrizo Springs in 15 days or soon after.”

The media is not treating the Biden administration the same way it treated the Trump administration. The New York Times this week reported on the situation with an article titled, “Separated Families: A Legacy Biden Has Inherited From Trump.” The outlet reported that separated families are now demanding “restitution, mental health services and green cards as compensation.”

The Obama administration also separated families, and in 2019, Sam Vinograd, a former member of Obama’s National Security Council, defended her former boss’ policy, saying the separations were “for their protection.”

“When President Obama separated children from their families, Wolf, or from adults, Wolf, it was for their protection. It was if there was a risk of trafficking or other kind of harm that might have been incurred,” Vinograd said to CNN’s Wolf Blitzer. “But even if he did do that, why is Donald Trump saying that two wrongs make a right? Again, Obama wasn’t wrong, but so he’s saying that because something happened under President Obama, he’s repeating it and upping the ante. That’s an incredibly poor excuse. He’s systemized that inhumane treatment that, again, Obama was doing to protect the children.”

There is zero evidence that absolutely every separation under Obama was to get children away from traffickers and absolutely every separation under Trump was done for whatever racist intentions the media impugns onto Trump. In fact, a Senate report from January 2016, while Obama was still president, found that the Department of Health and Human Services had actually given more than a dozen immigrant children to human traffickers because it failed to adequately conduct background checks.

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