Atlantic’s Caitlin Dickerson Criticizes Morning Joe After Participating in Panel Discussion on Border Crisis: ‘A Lot of Inaccuracies’

Caitlin Dickerson, a reporter for The Atlantic, criticized a Morning Joe segment Tuesday – in which she had just participated – about the crisis at the southern border, saying the segment with hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski had “a lot of inaccuracies.”

1/There were a lot of inaccuracies in a Morning Joe segment that just ended. I only got a chance to respond to some of them and wanted to provide further clarity:

— Caitlin Dickerson (@itscaitlinhd) March 23, 2021

2/ It is a not a “Biden administration policy” that allows unaccompanied minors to request legal protection at the border. That is the American asylum system, codified into law by congress in the the Refugee Act of 1980.

— Caitlin Dickerson (@itscaitlinhd) March 23, 2021

3/ Case management programs that were eliminated by the Trump administration and are being reestablished now yielded immigration court appearance rates higher than 90% — not 25-30%.

The general implication was that requesting asylum is unfair or illegal. It’s not. See above.

— Caitlin Dickerson (@itscaitlinhd) March 23, 2021

“There were a lot of inaccuracies in a Morning Joe segment that just ended,” Dickerson tweeted Tuesday. “I only got a chance to respond to some of them and wanted to provide further clarity.”

Dickerson went on to clarify that American asylum laws allow unaccompanied minors to request protection at the border, not a policy of the administration of President Joe Biden. She also said that the Biden administration is reestablishing case management programs that were eliminated during the administration of former President Donald Trump and that immigration court appearance rates are now up.

“The general implication was that requesting asylum is unfair or illegal,” Dickerson added. “It’s not.”

Dickerson appeared in the segment along with BBC anchor Katty Kay and historian Jon Meacham.

At the start of the panel segment, Brzezinski referred to “an internal document obtained by NBC News” and said that border agents are now authorized “to begin releasing adult migrants and families from custody before they have been given dates to appear in court.”

Later in the segment, before turning to Dickerson, Scarborough referred to reports that some weren’t told when to appear at a future immigration hearing. “They didn’t even give us a notice to appear,” Scarborough said. “Which, of course, even when illegal immigrants get a notice to appear, often, maybe 25, maybe 25%, maybe a third of those given those notice to appear actually come back and show up in court. This is sending a message that I fear is going to just lead to more chaos at the border.”

Dickerson said that “it’s fairly common for people to get their notice to appear,” and the date will be several weeks or months after arriving in the U.S.”

Scarborough later said that the Biden administration is “sending a message across Central America if you’re an unaccompanied minor and make that really dangerous trek, we’re going to let you in. And we may not even give you a notice to appear.”

“The facts are that Joe Biden has really botched this up,” Scarborough added. “His administration has botched this up.”

See the portion of the segment with Scarborough and Dickerson, below.

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