Sunday, March 21, 2021

Biden giving media 'zero access' to border operations: photojournalist - Evie Fordham

 

​ ​ by Evie Fordham

"There’s no modern precedent for a full physical ban on media access to CBP border operations," John Moore said

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Award-winning photojournalist John Moore blasted the Biden administration for giving "zero access" to the media to observe Customs and Border Protection operations at the southern border.

Moore took to Twitter to lament the lack of transparency as a surge of migrants trying to enter the country has put a strain on resources.

"I respectfully ask US Customs and Border Protection to stop blocking media access to their border operations," Moore tweeted Friday. "I have photographed CBP under Bush, Obama and Trump but now - zero access is granted to media. These long lens images taken from the Mexican side."

Moore, a Getty Images correspondent, won the World Press Photo Foundation's 2019 photo of the year for his image of a Honduran toddler crying while her mother is detained by Border Patrol agents.

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He lamented the loss of access on the border under Biden.

"There’s no modern precedent for a full physical ban on media access to CBP border operations," Moore wrote on Twitter. "To those who might say, cut them some slack -- they are dealing with a situation, I’d say that showing the US response to the current immigrant surge is exactly the media’s role.

"The vast majority of river crossings by asylum seekers happen on federal land in south Texas’ Rio Grande Valley. The federal [government] controls access to those areas. The Border Patrol has been removing journalists who enter, including recently myself, CBS, others," he continued.

 

White House press secretary Jen Psaki has been repeatedly questioned about media access to Border Patrol facilities.

Psaki was asked earlier in March about reports that Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agents were "frustrated" they couldn’t answer questions about what’s happening at these facilities or bring reporters inside.

Customs and Border Protection officials told the Washington Examiner that Biden Homeland Security officials had "muzzled" spokespersons and top agents to prevent them from speaking with the press.

Santiago Lopez Paz, 3, a migrant from Honduras, stands in a respite center hosted by a humanitarian group after he and his family were released from U.S. Customs and Border Protection custody, Saturday, March 20, 2021, in Brownsville, Texas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

Santiago Lopez Paz, 3, a migrant from Honduras, stands in a respite center hosted by a humanitarian group after he and his family were released from U.S. Customs and Border Protection custody, Saturday, March 20, 2021, in Brownsville, Texas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

"I certainly wouldn’t characterize it that way," Psaki said. "But if our policy is keeping people quiet, we are not successful, and it is not our policy to prevent people from talking." She pointed reporters to DHS for the logistics of press access.

Psaki said Biden had no plans to travel to the border because he received a briefing on the situation from White House officials who had recently traveled there, complete with photos. 

One reporter asked why the White House couldn’t release the photos Biden had seen and why the team that visited the border couldn’t hold its own briefing. The press secretary said she’d talk to the team on releasing the photos and providing a public update. 

Fox News' Morgan Phillips contributed to this report.

 

Evie Fordham  

Source: https://www.foxnews.com/media/photojournalist-biden-media-access-border-patrol-operations 

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