'This is not kids being kept in cages' -Psaki

"There's a pandemic going on," Psaki told the reporter. "I'm sure you're not suggesting that we have children right next to each other in ways that are not COVID-safe, are you?"

Psaki also addressed migrant parents who might be considering sending their children across the U.S.-Mexico border, saying "this is not the time to come."

U.S. officials have said that anyone who seeks to enter the U.S. and does not have an active Migrant Protection Protocols case, a Trump-era program, will be immediately expelled under COVID-era rules.