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President Joe Biden has tapped Vice President Kamala Harris to lead the White House effort to tackle the migration challenge at the U.S. southern border and work with Central American nations to address root causes of the problem.

Biden made the announcement as he and Harris met at the White House on Wednesday with Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandra Mayorkas and other immigration advisers to discuss the increase in migrants, including many unaccompanied minors, arriving at the border in recent weeks.

In delegating the matter to Harris, Biden is seeking to replicate a dynamic that played out when he served as President Barack Obama's vice president. Obama turned to Biden in his first term to lead the White House effort to draw down U.S. troops in Iraq and oversee implementation of stimulus in response to the Great Recession.

When she speaks, she speaks for me, Biden said, noting her past work as California's attorney general makes her specially equipped to lead the administration's response.

Biden, who has faced stiff criticism from Republicans over the increased flow of migrants, is hoping to show Americans he's taking the situation at the border seriously. He also wants to prevent the growing humanitarian and political challenge from overshadowing his administration's ambitious legislative agenda.

But the high-profile assignment for Harris, who ran for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020 and is expected to run for the White House again in the future, could be politically fraught.

Needless to say, the work will not be easy, Harris said. But it is important work.

Harris is tasked with overseeing diplomatic efforts to deal with issues spurring migration in the Northern Triangle countries of El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, as well as pressing them to strengthen enforcement on their own borders, administration officials said. Shes also tasked with developing and implementing a long-term strategy that gets at the root causes of migration from those countries.

Biden suggested President Donald Trump s decision to cut $450 million funding in 2019 to the region was partly to blame for the situation.

Among the other reasons for the current increase: the thousands of Central American migrants already stuck at the border for months and the persistent scourge of gang violence afflicting the Northern Triangle countries.

Still, the numbers of both unaccompanied minors and families encountered at the border are lower than they were at various points during the Trump administration, including in spring 2019.

For Harris, the assignment gives her the first big opportunity to step to the front of the stage on a matter of enormous consequence for the administration. As the first Black woman elected vice president, Harris arrived on the job as a trailblazer. It has remained opaque how Biden would utilize her.

The move echoes not only Obama's decision to deputize Biden but also Trump naming Vice President Mike Pence to lead his coronavirus task force and President Bill Clinton handing Vice President Al Gore environmental and technology portfolios early in his presidency.

It's been a mixed bag for vice presidents in recent history who have been made the point person on delicate matters, said Joel Goldstein, the author of The White House Vice Presidency: The Path to Significance, Mondale to Biden.

Pence's efforts on the coronavirus were stymied by Trump's hijacking of the task force's daily briefings early in the pandemic. Dick Cheney, who had been charged with leading George W. Bush's search for a vice president only to take the spot himself, carved out what was seen by many critics as a shadow presidency in which he had an outsized influence on shaping Bush's national security policies.

And Gore faced headwinds from Republicans in Congress who were reluctant to give him a win ahead of his unsuccessful 2000 run for the White House.

Some of the risk versus reward depends to some extent on the vice president's relationship with the president, Goldstein said. Whether or not the president had their back. Whether the presidents going to allow you to be in a position to accomplish things and be perceived to accomplish things.

Biden made the announcement as a delegation of White House officials and members of Congress was traveled to the southern border on Wednesday to tour a facility in Carrizo Springs, Texas, where more than 750 migrant teenagers are being held.

The Biden administration has in recent weeks moved to open more than 10,000 new beds across the Southwest in convention centers and former oilfield camps. It notified Congress on Wednesday that it will open a new 3,000-person facility in San Antonio and a 1,400-person site at the San Diego convention center. HHS is also opening a second site in Carrizo Springs and received approval from the Defense Department Wednesday to begin housing teenagers at military bases in San Antonio and El Paso, Texas.

While acknowledging a big problem with the rising numbers of migrants, Rep. Norma Torres D-Calif., one of five lawmakers to tour the facility Wednesday, credited the Biden administration with treating young migrants far more humanely than the Trump administration.

In an interview after the tour, Torres described children accommodated four to a room, and said she saw no signs of overcrowding. The young people attend school, have access to health care and are given weekly COVID-19 tests. Lawmakers were told 1 in 10 children are testing positive for the virus, but none at the facility had been hospitalized, she said.

When I look at those kids, I see myself, said Torres, an immigrant from Guatemala who arrived in the U.S. with her family as a child.

The White House faced criticism for limiting media access to Wednesdays tour, keeping it to just one TV crew. It has still not allowed media to enter Border Patrol facilities where large numbers of children are detained or HHS sites that it rapidly opened under pressure. The Carrizo Springs facility was established in 2019 during the Trump administration and re-opened in February.

Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, who is leading a separate delegation of GOP senators to the border later this week, decried the lack of press access as a muzzling of the media by the Democratic administration.

Joe Biden doesnt want you to see, Cruz told reporters at the Capitol.

___

Merchant reported from Houston and Lemire from New York. Associated Press writer Josh Boak in Washington contributed to this report.

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Biden taps VP Harris to lead response to border challenges - The Independent

The Biden administration on Wednesday -- for the first time -- let journalists into a Texas border facility housing young migrants who crossed the southern border, after weeks of denying access to members of the news media. But it has continued to keep reporters out of other, detention-like facilities filled well over their capacities.

A reporter and camera crew were permitted on Wednesday to enter a facility in Carrizo Springs, Texas, run by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Refugee Resettlement.

They accompanied a delegation of White House officials and members of Congress touring the facility for minors who have arrived at the border unaccompanied by parents. They saw intake and dining areas, as well as a medical clinic, but they were not allowed to speak to any of the minors.

Unaccompanied immigrant children are seen walking across a parking lot in a frame grab from pool video shot during a tour by White House officials and members of Congress of the U.S. Office of Refugee Resettlement and the Department of Health and Human Service's (HHS) Carrizo Springs Influx Care Facility for unaccompanied immigrant children in Carrizo Springs, Texas, March 24, 2021.

The administration granted the press access a day before President Joe Biden is scheduled to hold the first formal, solo news conference of his presidency, where he is likely to face questions about why the administration was keeping the news media out.

It also came the same day Biden said he was tapping Vice President Kamala Harris to lead his administration's efforts to stem the flow of migration from Central America and just as the president -- for the first time -- brought reporters into a White House meeting on immigration.

The influx of unaccompanied minors on the border has posed a potent political threat to the president, who has come under fire from Republicans for his handling of the situation.

Children play soccer in a frame grab from pool video shot during a tour by White House officials and members of Congress of the U.S. Office of Refugee Resettlement and the Department of Health and Human Service's (HHS) Carrizo Springs Influx Care Facility for unaccompanied immigrant children in Carrizo Springs, Texas, March 24, 2021.

Used during the Trump administration but shuttered in July 2019, the Carrizo Springs facility was reopened last month to accommodate the increasing number of unaccompanied children crossing the border. Reporters had been allowed in under former President Donald Trump, although recording devices were not allowed inside.

There are currently 766 boys ranging in age from 13 to 17 years old in the facility, which has never reached its capacity of 952, officials told the reporter, who represented several U.S. television networks, including ABC News. While the journalists were not allowed to speak with the children, whom they saw walking around the grounds and playing soccer and basketball, the members of Congress touring the facility were.

Officials said the facility is not at capacity since they have to set aside space for teens who test positive for COVID-19 when they arrive at the facility and that 108 have tested positive, according to the reporter.

The group was also taken to an empty classroom, recorded video of piles of clothing for new arrivals and saw employees walking around outside buildings on the ground.

Children play basketball in a frame grab from pool video shot during a tour by White House officials and members of Congress of the U.S. Office of Refugee Resettlement and the Department of Health and Human Service's (HHS) Carrizo Springs Influx Care Facility for unaccompanied immigrant children in Carrizo Springs, Texas, March 24, 2021.

The administration has continued to block access to other facilities along the border that actually have far surpassed their capacities. The White House has cited concerns over privacy and the coronavirus pandemic.

The Carrizo Springs HHS facility, and others like it, represent the second step for many unaccompanied minors picked up by U.S. authorities on the southern border.

First, they are typically taken to detention-like facilities run by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, where they are, by law, only supposed to remain for up to 72 hours before being transferred to HHS shelters or sent to live with sponsors. Those facilities do not have the same capacity for dealing with children that the HHS ones do.

In recent weeks, the CBP facilities have become overwhelmed with thousands of minors waiting to be transferred -- a record -- as HHS has struggled to provide enough space. HHS has recently said it was opening special intake facilities at convention centers in Dallas and San Diego to help take more minors out of CBP custody.

The department plans to open a second facility in Carrizo Springs and is bringing another similar facility online in Pecos, Texas, to house a total of 2,500 migrant kids.

As of this week, there were approximately 10,500 minors in HHS custody, with nearly 5,000 in CBP custody.

A frame grab from pool video shot during a tour by White House officials and members of Congress of the U.S. Office of Refugee Resettlement and the Department of Health and Human Service's (HHS) Carrizo Springs Influx Care Facility for unaccompanied immigrant children in Carrizo Springs, Texas, March 24, 2021.

The first glimpses inside a crowded CBP facility came Monday from Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar, who released photographs showing migrants packed into a CBP overflow facility in Donna, Texas. The next day, CBP released its own video showing the inside of the Donna facility and another one in El Paso, Texas.

Under Trump, CBP officials did allow members of the media to visit a port of entry processing center and border patrol station, but due to privacy concerns, cameras were not allowed to film the interior areas.

When then-Vice President Mike Pence took the press with him to two migrant detention centers in July 2019 -- with the Trump administration under fire for crowded, unsanitary conditions there -- the visit generated dramatic images of Pence standing before hundreds of migrants crammed into cages.

Vice President Mike Pence surveys the holding facility in Donna, Texas, July 12, 2019.

"We're also open to providing access there," White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Wednesday when pressed on why the administration was still keeping members of the news media out of the other facilities. "And this is just the first step in the process of providing greater access to the media."

Republicans have criticized the Biden team for, they say, being unprepared for migrants coming to the United States in response to Biden rolling back former President Donald Trump's restrictive immigration policies.

The White House, meanwhile, has pointed fingers at Trump -- saying his administration exacerbated the situation by systematically ripping families apart, treating people fleeing violence and poverty with inhumanity and neglecting or dismantling the system set up to deal with them.

Trump's administration turned away minors and separated children from their parents as a matter of policy -- and hundreds still remain apart as a consequence. Biden, on the other hand, has made clear he does not want to turn away the children and teenagers arriving at the border alone.

ABC News' Quinn Owen contributed reporting.

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Biden administration allows access to border facility -- but not ones over capacity - ABC News

Followers of the QAnon conspiracy theory trying to find meaning behind the blocking of the Suez Canal by a cargo ship claim that the vessel is being used by Hillary Clinton for child sex trafficking.

Some supporters of the radical movement are suggesting the 400-meter-long Ever Given currently stuck in Egypt is being used to abuse children on behalf of the cabal of pedophiles that they believe runs the U.S.

Others claim the children held captive on the ship will be revealed to the world live on camera, justifying their beliefs.

In order to jump to this wild conclusion, QAnon supporters point to the vessel's operator, a Taiwan-based shipping company called Evergreen Marine Corporation. Clinton was given the Secret Service codename "Evergreen" when her husband Bill Clinton was president.

The ship's call sign is H3RCthe same three letters as the initials of the 2016 presidential candidate.

On the Telegram encrypted messaging app, a QAnon account with more than 106,000 subscribers wrote: "Suez Canal blocked by huge container ship named Evergreen. Evergreen shipping is most likely a cover for human and sex trafficking.

"HRC = Hillary Rodham Clinton. Evergreen = Hillary's Secret Service name. Evergreen Call Sign: H3RC."

Another influential QAnon advocate with more than 53,000 subscribers on the "free speech" social network Gab wrote: "Evergreen is HRC's Secret Service name. It has also been speculated that Evergreen shipping is a front for human trafficking.

"Theory: ship gets stuck, International aid offered, containers opened on live TV."

QAnon supporters often twist world events to suit their theories or claim they have been predicted by the mysterious figure known as "Q."

For years, "Q" would leave cryptic messages on messageboard sites, which were deciphered to form the basis of the conspiracy theorists' beliefs. These include the notion that leading Democrats and members of the Hollywood elite are child-eating pedophiles.

The first of these so-called "Qdrops" appeared on 4chan in October 2017, claiming that Clinton would soon be arrested.

For the next few years, thousands of the posts appeared online, often using phrases that became QAnon slogans.

No new messages have been posted for months, however, with their frequency slowing down considerably since former President Donald Trump, a savior-like figure for QAnon, lost the election in November.

The conspiracy theorists do not necessarily need new posts to guide the movement, however. They simply reinterpret the existing catalog of messages to suit their purpose.

In this case, the attempt to move the ship from the Suez Canal was predicted because "Q" had previously mentioned Evergreen and the words "when do you need a plumber?" in an April 2018 post.

"When do you call a plumber? When something's maybe 'blocked'?" one widely shared Telegram by some of the biggest QAnon channels read. "WE HAVE IT ALL."

This is not the first time an Evergreen vessel has been roped into a QAnon child trafficking conspiracy.

In August 2020, a similar rumor was spread after the explosion at the port of Beirut, which killed more than 200 people.

One widely shared Facebook image from the scene contained the caption: "Evergreen Shipping Container. Human Trafficking by HRC."

Fact-checking website Politifact labeled the claim "false."

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QAnon Claims Stuck Suez Canal Ship Used by Hillary Clinton ...

What do the Suez Canal, Hillary Clinton and a Taiwanese shipping company have in common?

Conspiracy theorists on Facebook insist theyre all part of an international human trafficking scheme.

Egyptian authorities are working to remove a 1,300-foot cargo ship that got stuck March 23 in the Suez Canal, a critical shipping route that connects the Red Sea to the Mediterranean Sea. The boat is operated by the Evergreen Group, a Taiwan shipping conglomerate.

Some Facebook users took that as a signal of Clintons involvement.

"HRC = Hillary Rodham Clinton. Evergreen = Hillarys Secret Service name. Evergreen Call Sign: H3RC," a March 24 post about the shipping accident says.

The post was flagged as part of Facebooks efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.)

(Screenshot from Facebook)

Similar false claims about Clinton, "evergreen" and human trafficking surfaced after the Beirut port explosion in August. The newest example is similarly bogus and traces back to a baseless conspiracy theory thats been circulating since 2016.

First, lets review some facts about Evergreen.

Evergreen Line is the trade name for the five shipping companies owned by the Evergreen Group. The companies comprise the fourth largest container fleet in the world, according to the JOC Group, a logistics intelligence firm.

An Evergreen ship got stuck in a bank of the Suez Canal during a dust storm with high winds, the Wall Street Journal reported. The incident involves an Ever Given ship, which is one of the largest ocean vessels in the world. More than 100 ships are waiting to traverse the canal, dealing a blow to global shipping.

The story turns into fiction with the added elements of Clinton and human trafficking. The conspiracy theory goes like this: Clinton is part of a global child sex trafficking cabal, and her Secret Service codename was "Evergreen." (She confirmed the codename during the 2016 campaign.) Therefore, Clinton is using Evergreen to transport children.

That baseless line is related to the broader Pizzagate and QAnon conspiracy theories about prominent Democrats and child victims.

After the Ever Given ship got stuck in the Suez Canal, QAnon supporters on Telegram and Gab, social media platforms that are popular among conservatives, pointed to the boats call sign, H3RC, as evidence to support their theory. Clintons initials are HRC.

Its unclear what cargo the Evergreen ship is carrying, but theres no evidence that its people. We reached out to Evergreen through its website for a comment, but we havent heard back.

The post is inaccurate, ridiculous and free of proof. We rate it Pants on Fire!

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The Evergreen ship blocking the Suez Canal is not linked to Hillary Clinton - PolitiFact

In an interview on Monday, the former Secretary of State said she was intrigued and a little saddened by the fact that both Russia and China are pushing their vaccines in a way the US has not.

So this is the kind of leadership that the United States has historically been known for which frankly we should be lifting up and doing more of, she said.

The former presidential candidate said that the countries were demonstrating vaccine diplomacy in sharing their coronavirus vaccine candidates with other countries.

They are going into countries and saying well take care of you, she said, adding that their strides in doing so leaves the United States playing catch up.

Now, of course, we have to vaccinate our whole population but from what Im told were going to have more than enough supply to do that, she said.

Last week, Mr Biden announced that his administration would reach his pledge of 100 million vaccine doses within his first 100 days of office 42 days ahead of schedule.

The president said earlier in March that the country would have enough Covid vaccine doses for every American adult by the end of May, a revision of his earlier timeline to have enough by the end of July.

However, poorer countries across the world are encountering shortages of Covid-19 vaccines as richer nations scoop up the Western-made versions or manufacturers struggle with limited production capacity.

Not only will poorer countries be forced to wait for shots, possibly for years to come, but many are already being charged much higher prices for every dose.

The head of the World Health Organisation (WHO) Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned in January that unfair vaccine distribution would risk a catastrophic moral failure saying it would also prolong the pandemic."

"Not only does this me-first approach leave the worlds poorest and most vulnerable at risk, it is also self-defeating," Dr Tedros said at the opening of the bodys annual executive board meeting.

As Covid continues to spread globally, there are more opportunities for the virus to mutate over time and create new variants, such as the more transmissible B117 variant detected in the United Kingdom.

Ms Clinton stressed during the interview that we dont know yet whether these variants are going to cause a big problem in some parts of the world, whether theyre going to cause some of the vaccines not to be effective.

We still have a lot to learn and were not at the end of this, she said. When the vast majority of the world is not yet vaccinated, that is like a petri dish for more variants to develop.

Ms Clinton concluded by warning: We are walking a fine line here. Let's vaccinate us but at the same time let's do everything we can to try to provide as much vaccination support to the rest of the world as possible.

The US has recorded more than 29.9 million cases of the novel coronavirus and over 534,000 deaths since the pandemic gripped the country last March.

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Hillary Clinton calls on Biden to share vaccines with poorer nations - The Independent