WASHINGTON (AP) – Vice President Joe Biden said Wednesday that the United States will be judged by how it treats the thousands of young immigrants showing up on its border, but warned that the U.S. will be forced to send some minors back to dangerous, unfortunate environments nonetheless.
“These are not somebody else’s kids. These are our kids,” Biden said.
Appealing to lawyers to help represent unaccompanied minors, Biden said it would be a difficult task for an overburdened legal system to assess whether children apprehended on the border meet the criteria for refugee status and whether returning them would risk their physical demise.
At the same time, he said it’s not feasible for the U.S. to let children stay here just because they would be better off in the U.S. than in their home countries.
“Judges are going to be sending some kids back to environments that aren’t’ as good even as the facilities they’re living in,” Biden said, referring to detention facilities the U.S. has hastily set up to house the influx of immigrants. But their circumstances “will not meet the standards of asylum.”