biden's massive 1.9 trillion dollar covid relief bill. all of this is happening as we approach the official one year anniversary of essentially lockdown america. right now they are still debating the measure, the vote on final passage will follow. we know what will happen there. joining me is kristen welker outside the white house. i will say this. this biden white house, it does seem to want to not avoid what's happening at the border. they want to take it, at least, give the appearance they are willing to take it head on. >> that's right, chuck. we're going to hear from ambassador roberta jacobson. shooe there to try to send a message. we understand this is a serious situation. we're dealing with saurj in those unaccompanied migrants at the border. we know the administration has been looking into building more facilities and opening more facilities to house these children but, of course, the challenge becomes the fact you do have unaccompanied minor who is are being held for longer than the time allowed. that's opening this administration up from the right and the left. you have some progressive lawmakers who are saying, look, these images are reminiscent of what we saw under former administration and president biden has aimed to handle this situation more humanely. that's the word they continue to use. this is a critical test of that policy. how is it going to play out specifically. we know the administration is not using the term crisis. when you talk about the messaging that's coming from this administration, they are choosing their words very carefully, chuck. i anticipate you'll hear a will the of reporters question them on how they are vaviewing hast happening at the border. give us a reality check here. here is what the situation does seem to look like logically. essentially, the trump administration cut off all of -- basically cut off the ability to seek asylum. really sort of made this nearly impossible to cross the border. did it without any moral compass as far as or a value problem sigs here. now they are call it pent up demand to file these asylum claims. this is a backlog, number one? and who are the people that are in line here? it's not necessarily all coming from central america, is it? >> reporter: no. all very critical question, chuck. i think the best way to provide some context around this would be to first address the criticism we're hearing from the right is that the biden administration is pursuing an open borders strategy. that could not be further from the truth. let me explain a little bit. yes, the biden administration reversed title 42, that public health law that was preventing covid coming from the united states from the southern border which public health experts all dispute and still dispute it to this day. he only did it for kids. kids coming alone are the only ones after waiting at the border that are coming into the united states. it's what created this backlog inside the border patrol facilities where nobody wants the children to be in order to get them into the health and human services shelter where they can see a child welfare professional. no adults are being let in on a wide scale. no families are being let in. on the ground there are people who have been waiting an not just central americans. migrants from african nations who are not able to come into the country because of the rules that were put into place under the trump administration that are still in place to this day under the biden administration. specifically that title 42 public health law. the idea the borders are open and some wide scale, wholesale way is just not accurate in any way shape or form. it's only children, unaccompanied children and they do need more capacity to deal with these kids. >> jacob, i guess the perception or what various messaging out there is from coyotes and others is what? the border is more open today than it was last year. is that another challenge? >> sure. coyotes were saying pay me record numbers under donald trump because he's building a border wall. they will always make the message that you need to make a lot of money. the policies of the united states have been and remain to deter it. they try to keep people out of the country. i think what you'll hear from ambassador jacobson is a focus on root causes. why people leave their home country in the first place. people are leaving. >> go ahead. i got do cut you off because the briefing is about to begin. we all want to be listening in to this. we'll dip into that. >> she'll give some remarks and i'll be happy to take some questions. thank you for joining us. >> thank you, all. good afternoon. president biden has made clear from day one that he wants to change our immigration system. doing so means truly building back better because we can't undo four years of the previous administration overnight. those actions didn't just neglect our immigration system, they intentionally made it worse. when you add a pandemic to that, it's clear it will take significant time to overcome. we must build a better immigration system that reflects our values as americans, enforces our laws, safeguards public health and moves away from cycles of irregular migration. today i'm hear to talk about what we're doing with partners in mexico and central america to ensure that people don't make this dangerous journey and instead have opportunities for economic advancement and safety at home. the president has committed to seeking 4 billion dollar over four years to address the root causes of migration, including corruption, violence p and economic devastation exacerbated by climate change. as part of that plan, we will address the causes that compel individuals to migrate, including improving governance and proving foundation for investment and economic opportunity, strengthening rule of law. working across the whole of government, we'll look at access to interflashl protection and refugee resettlement and rethinking asylum processing to ensure fair and faster consideration. only by addressing those root causes can we break the cycle of desperation and provide hope for families who clearly would prefer to stay in their country and provide a better future for their children. president biden when he was vice president visits the region many times and is clear eyed about the challenge. he insists now as he did then that governments commit to being true partners in creating the conditions for growth and security. i want to emphasize that the funds we're asking for congress don't go for government leaders. they go do communities to training, to climate mitigation, to violence sprengs, to antigang programs. they go to the people who migrate in search of hope. they will have to have the participation of the private sectors in those counties who for too long have evaded tack, underpaid workers and fail to be part of the solution to creating safety democratic countcountrie. we already begun specific actions to both undo the previous administration policies and to advance a new vision of immigration. we have ended the so called migrant protection protocols that sent people back to mexico to wait sometimes for years for chance to present their asylum claims. working with the government of mexico international organizations and ngos, we have safely admitted over 140 migrants and closed the most dangerous face of the mpp. today we're announcing the restarting of the central american migrant program for children to be reunited with a parent legally in the united states. this program was ended abruptly by the prooefrs administration leaving around 3,000 children lar approved for travel, stranded. in phase two, we'll be working to improve the program to expand safe and legal avenues to the united states. i want to be clear, neither this announcement nor any of the other measures suggest that anyone, especially children and families with young children, should make the dangerous trip to try and enter the u.s. in an irregular fashion. the border is not open. we will continue to look for ways to provide legal avenues in the region for people needing protection while we continue to enforce our laws. this is a process. we have a great deal to do. this administration has made significant progress and we will continue to do so. it reflects who we are as americans. thank you. >> this 4 billion dollar, are you seek thanksgiving as part of a larger come prehence ifr package or a stand alone bill? >> what you'll see is that $4 billion in a central american northern triangle strategy will be part of our foreign assistance request and focus on the things we know that work. obviously, it's not our first rodeo. the vice president, the president when he was vice president worked on these issues. we know how to get money to communities that are most likely to send migrants but also that are suffering the greatest effect of two hurricanes this season, et cetera. it will be part of our overall foreign assistance package. we're focused on getting h humanitarian assistance to the countries. it's part of larger plan but there are parts of this that will be o the domestic side as well to fix the whole extent. >> what is the administration doing to work with the home countries, to send a message to people, don't come here, don't send your children here? >> i think one of the most important things is make sure we get communicationings right and the message right. i'm happy to repeat that. i think it's also important that we work with the international organizations that have very credible voices and have very good networks among migrant sending communities to dispel the myths and misinformation that smugglers are using. when we talk about the border not being open and the ways in which we're trying to dissuade people from making the dangerous journeys, the smugglers are conveying the opposite to people. we need to be looking at the program and how we can expand that. how we can make that eligibility greater. the next step is to look at solutions in the region. what more can we do to process people legally who really do require protection so they don't have to make they journey. we're looking at all of those things. >> you said this isn't your first rodeo. should the administration have been better prepared to handle this influx of children before it changed the policy allowing them to stay in the country? >> i think there's a couple of things. i think what we're doing now is making a difference in the home countries, beginning to work with governments. that couldn't start until january 20th. you can't start changing processes of government, building facilfacilities. all of this is part of the plan as quickly as possible to make sure that our domestic processes work more smoothly, more quickly but also to work with foreign governments and you can't do that till january 20th when you take over. there's been multiple engagements with the government of mexico, honduras within the first six weeks government. i think we have gotten off to fast start in that engagement. >> how does the government balance the need for cooperation with ongoing concerns about corruption there in honduras. federal prosecutors who say the president was working to flood the united states with cocaine? >> one of the things i made clear in the opening comments, which i want to reiterate is none of the money we're looking to get from congress or from taxpayers of the united states goes to government leaders. i don't think that means that presidents are unimportant in these countries but i think it's important to understand that we will be working with civil society, with international organizations and international ngos on the ground. we will work with officials that we can work with, but we also think it's really important that these countries make commitments, really explicit commitments to advancing on anti-corruption and in some places that will be hard to do if you've got officials for whom there is a cloud. in some places we will work with religious organizations, ngos, et cetera. it's a challenge in counties that have confronted serious corruption risks. >> what mechanism is in place? how do you safeguard the funding to make sure it stays out of the hands of corruption politicians? >> one of the things we have always done in 31 years of the state department has taught me this is we do induce monitoring. people are looked at before they are recipients of funds and we do checks and look at what's being done with the funds. we also don't deliver money in most cases. we deliver training. we deliver new lighting facile tills that reduce violence and crime. a lot of what you do, it's not handing over blank checks. i think that's really important in this. sgr new cnn reporting shows that unaccompanied migrant children are being held for on average 107 hours. that's up from 77 hours on average last week. what is the biden administration doing right now to fix that? >> my part of this focuses much more on what we're doing at the end of this process in central america and mexico. i think all of us, at every stage of this process are doing everything we can to make sure that children are well cared for and moved into facilities that are appropriate for them. i want to make a point, again, that it's really important that people not make the dangerous journey in first place. that we provide them with alternatives to maing that journey because it's not safe on route. if i could just emphasize that it's really important that that message get out because the perception is not the same as the reality in terms of the border not being open but we want to provide through other mechanisms ways for some of these young people to be reunited with family members in the united states. [ speaking spanish ] >> you're telling them not to come, would you describe what's happening on the border as a crisis given how these numbers are spiking so much week by week? >> i'm not trying to be cute here but i think the fact of the matter is we have to do what we do regardless of what anybody calls the situation. the fact is, we are all focused on improving the situation, on changing to a more humane and efficient system and whatever you call it, wouldn't change what we're doing because we have urgency from the president on down to fix our system and make sure that we are better at dealing with the hopes and the dreams of these migrants in their home country. >> do you think it's a coincidence as soon as trump and his immigration policy were on the way out and biden and his stated policy were on their way in, this surge at the border started? >> one of the things i think is important is we have seen surges before. surges tend to respond to hope and there was a significant hope for a more humane policy after four years of pent up demand. i don't know whether i would call that a coincidence but i think the idea that a more humane policy would be in place may have driven people to that decision but perhaps more importantly, it definitely drove smugglers to express disinformation, to spread disinformation about what was now possible we know that. >> if the change brought hope, is this surge good? >> i don't think that's what i just said. i think it's a reflection of how migrants feel at a particular time. i think what we are doing is making sure that we respond to that hope for people who need protection. we respond to that hope in a way that their cases can be adjudicated more quickly. i don't think anybody would say that coming to the united states in an irregular fashion is a good thing. that's why i've tried repeatedly to dissuade people from listening to those smugglers. we're going to try our best to do everything we can at each end of this in the united states but especially in central america and mexico to ensure we have safe orderly and legal migration. >> the president was active working with the countries in the triangle. was there lessons you were in the job in this administration have learned about how to deal with those countries or how to deal with foreign aid to them that are informing how you're approach things now and just to follow up a little on what peter was asking, are you concerned about mix ed messaging that you're telling people not to come that the journey is dangerous, that because you are offering this talk about more humanitarian process that people will not pay attention to the fact they could apply from home, from their home country, they would still come. they are still so hopeful there really is kind of a conflicting messaging coming from washington? >> on the first question, the question of learning things from when the vice president was leading a lot of our efforts previously, i think, yes. that's a resounding yes. both the president and all of us who worked with him on that, for him on that, learned a great deal. i think that it's really important that we put that to use now. one of the things he thinks is so important is being really explicit with leadership in the countries from which migrants are coming about commitments that they need to make because overcoming the reasons people migrate is not going to be the united states job alone. if we realize it's lack of good governance, economic opportunity and security issues or violence then some of those require commitments by the governments on anti-corruption and transparency and creating governments that function better to provide services for their country. he's clear on being sure we get the commitment from leaders and holding them to it. the money is not a tap that gets turned on all at once. you have to make sure you're continuing to follow the issues. i think there's a lot of things we learned and a lot of things about ensuring that funds get to the communities that are really in need whether it's post hurricane or coffee rust which was averaging guatemala. when you look at mixed messages, it is difficult at times to convey both hope in the future and the danger. that's what we're trying to do. i will agree that we are trying to walk and chew gum at the same time. we're trying to convey to everybody in the region that we will have legal processes for people in the future and we're standing those up as soon as we can but at the same time, you cannot come through irregular means. it's dangerous and the majority of people will be sent out of the united states because that is the truth of it. we want to be honest with people. we're trying to send both messages. smugglers are trying to send one message. we're relying on every means we can to get that message out there and that leads me to want to reiterate, as i did before. [ speaking spanish ] >> can you say a word more about what you're talking about in terms of the private sector? can you explain what you're invisioning there and what do you need? just the second question. you're talk about being really explicit with these countries but what sort of leverage does the united states actually have to affect change in those countries? what can you do? >> let me take that second one first. in the end, i think the implication of your question, which is quite right is we can't make the changes. we can encourage them. we can help support them with resources, both technical assistance and funding but we can't make the changes. the changes have to come in the northern triangle countries. there's a myriad of people in organizations who are trying to make those changes. part of what we want to do is empower them. whether that's more effective economic support. whether it's training for young people. whether it's anti-gang programs. whether it's mother's clubs and empowering local communities. all of that gets done through people on the ground, not by the united states. i think it's really important when you say what leverage do you have? i think working as partners with the countries means sitting down and talking ab