One of the major hot-button issues during the Trump administration was his hardline stance on immigration. The former president made his controversial opinion on the topic very public, and often used it as a redirection tactic during scandals and controversies. 

Now, with Donald Trump out of office and the Biden administration settled in, the border crisis has started to fade from the eye of the public. Within the government, however, it seems as though both sides of the aisle have swayed in their rhetoric regarding the internment camps.

Biden has recently expressed his intentions on possibly resuming construction after it was halted in his first day as Head of State. White House press secretary, Jen Psaki has stated that there will be ‘limited funding’ allocated to the Department of Homeland Security to ‘filll gaps’ left by Donald Trump at the end of his term. After first pledging to end construction on the wall, Biden has reversed his stance and is now planning to build more. 

He is also planning on reopening a children’s detention facility in Homestead, Florida that was closed by the Trump administration in early 2019 amid accusations by the National Center for Youth Law stating that children had been traumatized there, and calls by Democrats for transparency within the camp.

While this plan has become widely accepted by both Democrats and Republicans, it has still drawn the ire of some representatives. Rep. Marco Rubio, of Florida, criticized the Democrats’ sudden willingness to work with the opposite side on migrant camps, calling it ‘hypocritical,’ and remarking that it is now the Democrats who are putting kids in cages. Nonetheless, he still voiced his support for reopening the camp in Homestead, stating in an interview with CBS Miami, “The bottom line is this, we have seen a surge in minors coming to the border over the last month.”

On the other hand, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, of New York, expressed her discontent in a recent tweet, saying, “Another issue is whether or not these services should be contracted out the way they currently are to begin with, and whether facilities [with] controversial records (eg. Homestead) should be reopened.” 

Rubio finished his interview with a reminder, “My point is when Trump did it, it was a humanitarian crisis. It was a human rights violation. But now that Biden is doing it, it will get very little attention, certainly won’t get the wall-to-wall coverage.”

As media coverage continues to move away from the border crisis, it is important to stay tuned in to the situation while it progresses.