Despite concerns from state, local Democrats, WH says immigration efforts are working

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During a White House briefing on Friday, press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre responded to a question from Yahoo News Senior White House Correspondent Alex Nazaryan about concerns from New York City Mayor Eric Adams about the Biden administration’s ability to handle a new surge of migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border. Jean-Pierre contended that the administration’s efforts have helped to reduce illegal immigration at the southern border.

Video Transcript

- Karine, I spoke with New York City Mayor Eric Adams this afternoon. And he's just very concerned, as he said in media appearances in recent days, that the White House is not doing enough to prepare for a new surge of migrants, many of whom are going to end up in cities like Chicago, New York, here in DC. And as you know, it's not just DeSantis and Abbott sending buses of migrants to these cities. It's Jared Polis, a Democrat from Colorado, as well. So what do you have to say to those concerns from Mayor Adams?

KARINE JEAN-PIERRE: Look, here's what I would say, and I answered this question with one of your colleagues, which is we believe and we have seen the numbers and the data that the border enforcement measures have dramatically reduced the number of people attempting to enter the country unlawfully. And I just mentioned the parolee program that was extended to Cuba, Nicaragua, and Haiti and how we've seen those numbers come down by 89%. And so that's because of the measures that the president has put forth.

And so look, we're going to continue to do the work. I just mentioned as well, we're going to see the lowest-- we're on track to see the lowest levels of monthly border encounters since February, 2021. Why is that? It's because of the work that this president has done using the tools, using what he's able to do from the federal government from where he sits. Look, you know, when the president walked in, the very first piece of legislation that he put forth was an immigration reform bill.

That's how seriously he took this. That's how important it was for him to secure the border and deal with illegal migration. And what he has asked for is to have Congress act. And I know you mentioned a couple of Democrats, but the vast majority of folks who have been pushing back against this have been Republicans. We've seen very, very in a stark way the political stunts that they have taken.

So look, he's willing to work on this. He has said this many times. He's willing to work in a bipartisan way to get this done. But in the meantime, he's going to take actions, as we've seen. And those actions are actually working. And so that's how I would answer your question.