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Biden administration seeks to allow separated migrant families to reunite in the U.S.

01 March 2021
Dan Ackermann

Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas announced Monday that the Biden administration will explore "lawful pathways" to allow migrant families separated under the Trump administration to reunite in the U.S.

Why it matters: Biden has pledged to reunite the hundreds of families still separated as a result of the Trump administration's "zero tolerance" policy, and signed an executive order last month creating a family separation task force chaired by Mayorkas.

  • Mayorkas said at a press briefing that 105 families have been recently reunited, and that the federal government is "dedicating resources full-time" to reunion efforts.
  • He added that the administration is also "working closely" with legal counsel for the separated families, the countries of El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, non-governmental organizations, and soon the private sector.

The big picture: Mayorkas tore into the Trump administration for its past immigration policies, calling the family separations "the most powerful and heartbreaking example of the cruelty that preceded" the Biden presidency and claiming that Trump "gutted" the immigration system.

  • The secretary cautioned that "it takes time to rebuild an entire system and to process individuals at the border," especially during a pandemic.
  • He urged prospective migrants "to wait" before coming to the U.S. in order to avoid adding to immigration backlogs, and noted that the Biden administration is "obligated" to continue using a Trump-era public health program to expel migrants due to COVID-19.
  • Mayorkas also insisted that there's not a crisis at the border, instead calling it "a challenge at the border that we are managing.”

What to watch: Mayorkas, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and other White House officials will be on President Biden's call this afternoon with Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador and his top aides.

Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times

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Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.

Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.

The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.

  • The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.

What the transcripts say:

  • Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
  • The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
  • Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."

Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.