White House chief national security spokesman John Kirby was asked if the Biden administration feels any “responsibility” for the fire that killed at least 40 people at a migrant center in Mexico.

A fire at a Mexican government-run migrant detention center in Ciudad Juarez killed at least 40 people and injured many more, and according to Mexico President Andrés Manuel López Obrador was the result of protest fires that got out of hand.

Kirby held an on-the-record briefing with reporters via Zoom on Tuesday morning, during which NPR White House correspondent Franco Ordoñez asked if the administration feels any responsibility for the tragedy because of policies like Title 42 and insufficient “legal pathways”:

FRANCO ORDONEZ: Wanted to ask about the fire in Ciudad Juarez? I just wanted to know if the administration or the White House felt any bit of of responsibility for some of the circumstances that happened? Because certainly some advocates are putting some of the blame on the administration and the use of, the expansion of Title 42 and the lack of legal pathways. So I wanted to ask you about that.

NSC SPOKESMAN JOHN KIRBY: Yeah, we talked about this a little bit yesterday or the day before. I want to again offer our condolences for the families of those who were killed. And certainly our thoughts and prayers to their loved ones. As I said before, we’re working and have been in touch with Mexican officials and we’re working to bring some of the seriously injured individuals to medical facilities here in the United States.

And look, as to your question of blame, the short answer is no.

And I think it’s important to remember that the last administration is the one that forced asylum seekers to remain in Mexico while their claims were being processed. A process that could take years. We’ve been working to end that policy.

The policies that the president put in place in January are encouraging migrants to seek legal, more legal pathways in the United States and avoid crossing through Mexico altogether. We’re allowing up to 30,000 migrants with a sponsor each month to fly directly into the United States.

And as I think we’ve said before, you know, we’ve even created an app here to allow migrants to make asylum appointments from central Mexico so that they don’t have to gather at the border. And I think we talked about this yesterday, but these policies are, we’re starting to see them pay off.

Unlawful migration from Venezuela, Nicaragua, Haiti and Cuba is down almost 100%, 97%, and it’s down 71% from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. So we’re going to keep doing that.

We need Congress, though, to help us. We need them to act by providing the resources and the reforms that the president has requested and has requested since the very early days of his administration. Fix this broken immigration system.

Watch above via Mediaite.

The post Reporter at Briefing Asks If Biden Admin Feels ‘Responsibility’ For Deadly Migrant Center Fire in Mexico first appeared on Mediaite.

from Mediaite https://ift.tt/X04UOtC