‘You Can See How Quickly It Can Escalate Into a Crisis’: CNN Reports on Biden Administration Struggles to Handle ‘Dramatic Surge’ of Immigrants

“Whatever you want to call it, it is a dramatic surge,” CNN host Erin Burnett said on Tuesday night of the growing wave of immigrants trying to come into the country.

On her OutFront show, Burnett aired a report from correspondent Ed Lavandera about the massive immigration challenge that the Biden administration is now facing — and struggling to handle.

“The White House saying the situation at the U.S.-Mexico border is not a crisis yet,” Burnett noted. “But it does come as a record number of unaccompanied migrant children are in custody at the southern border, and the more than 100,000 migrants arrested and encountered in recent weeks is at a five-year high.”

Lavandera then dug into the “emergency level” of migrants arriving at the border, noting that U.S. authorities have “arrested and encountered more than 100,000 migrants in the four weeks before March 3rd.”

“And new data reviewed by CNN shows that there are more than 3,400 unaccompanied children in the custody of Customs and Border Protection,” Lavandera added. “Federal immigration officials are scrambling to make room.”

“Republicans and some Democrats say the Biden administration is not moving fast enough to keep the migration crisis under control,” he explained.

As the segment wrapped up, Burnett asked: “You talk about a record number of children, 100,000 people turned away, what is the most pressing issue they face right now?”

“It’s the unaccompanied children who are in custody,” Lavandera replied. “Migrants who have spent the last month traveling towards the U.S. border describe seeing many children by themselves making the journey to the U.S. southern border. That is a pressing concern.”

“This kind of situation, you can see how quickly it can escalate into a crisis,” he added. “Children in custody and how they’re handled is a very delicate situation. They’re only supposed to be in CBP custody for about 72 hours and then moved on to other facilities or other sponsors. And that doesn’t appear to be happening as fast as it should right now.”

Watch the video above, via CNN.

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