Day 57: "Democracy is having a hard time functioning." - a podcast by Matt Kiser

1/ Biden discouraged potential migrants hoping to enter the United States, saying “don’t come […] don’t leave your town or city or community.” More than 13,000 unaccompanied migrant children are currently in U.S. custody and the country is on pace to stop more migrants crossing the border than in the last 20 years. Republicans, meanwhile, have blamed the surge of migrants and unaccompanied minors at the southern border on Biden rescinding Trump’s immigration policies, including a program that returned asylum seekers to wait in Mexico while their cases were being considered. (ABC News / CBS News / CNN / The Guardian / USA Today)

2/ Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas testified that the U.S.-Mexico “border is secure and the border is not open.” In a hearing held by the House Homeland Security Committee, Mayorkas defended the Biden administration’s approach to creating a “fair and humane” immigration system despite the administration struggling to accommodate a surge of unaccompanied minors at the border. Republican lawmakers, meanwhile, repeatedly called the situation a “crisis” and blamed Biden for mishandling immigration policy. “The situation is undoubtedly difficult,” Mayorkas said. “What the president is committed to and what I am committed to execute is to ensure that we have an immigration system that works and that migration to our country is safe, orderly and humane.” (CNN / Politico / New York Times / Wall Street Journal)

3/ The Biden administration limited what Border Patrol can share with the media about the migrant surge at the border. Officials said the restrictions are seen as an unofficial “gag order” that were communicated verbally – not through an official memo. Border Patrol officials were also told to deny all media requests for “ride-alongs” with agents and send all questions from the media to the press office in Washington for approval. (NBC News)

4/ Twenty-one Republican state attorneys general threatened to take action against the Biden administration over $350 billion set aside under coronavirus stimulus relief to help cities, counties, and states pay for the cost of the pandemic. In a seven-page letter, the Republican officials asked Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen to clarify a provision in the $1.9 trillion stimulus law that prevents them from using the federal funds to deliberately reduce their revenue through local tax cuts. The law requires repayment if any of the money is spent in violation of that condition. The group claimed that the restrictions “w...

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