FLASHBACK: Psaki snipes at Fox News' Peter Doocy over COVID-era migrant children 'right next to each other'

Psaki snipes at Fox News’ Peter Doocy over detained COVID-era migrant children

White House press secretary Jen Psaki goes back and forth with Fox News’ Peter Doocy at Feb. 23 press briefing.

Newly released footage of migrant detention facilities at the U.S.-Mexico border has raised questions about the way the administration described its attempt to keep detainees safe during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar and U.S. Customs and Border Protection have both released images this week from inside migrant processing facilities in Donna, Texas, showing migrants in close quarters within clear pens that are reminiscent of cages.

The White House previously maintained that it was keeping migrants safe through social distancing. In a Feb. 23 exchange with Fox News’ Peter Doocy, press secretary Jen Psaki rebuffed the idea that the administration was keeping children “right next to each other in ways that are not COVID safe.”

Doocy had asked about the reopening of a migrant facility utilized under former Donald Trump.

“It’s the same facility that was open for a month in the Trump administration,” he told Psaki last month. “Summer of 2019 — that is when Joe Biden said, ‘Under Trump, there have been horrifying scenes at the border of kids being kept in cages.’ And Kamala Harris said, basically, babies in cages is a human rights abuse being committed by the United States government. So how is this any different than that?”

Psaki responded: “These are facilities — let me be — let me be clear here.  One, there’s a pandemic going on. 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?”

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  Temporary processing facilities in Donna, Texas.((Source: U.S. Customs and Border Protection))

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  Temporary processing facilities in Donna, Texas.((Source: U.S. Customs and Border Protection))

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  Temporary processing facilities in Donna, Texas.((Source: U.S. Customs and Border Protection))

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  Temporary processing facilities in Donna, Texas.((Source: U.S. Customs and Border Protection))

She later added that “[w]e need to find places that are safe under COVID protocols for kids to be, where they can have access to education, health and mental services consistent with their best interest.”

“Our goal is for them to then be transferred to families or sponsors. So this is our effort to ensure that kids are treated — are not close — in close proximity and that we are abiding by the health and safety standards that the government has been set out,” she said.

The White House did not immediately respond to Fox News’ request for comment.

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